Albert Einstein: Creator and Rebel

by Banesh Hoffmann, Helen Dukas (Editor)

Overview

"Hoffmann does more than convey the emotional impact of Einstein's science on Einstein. He tries to make the general reader see the problems that concerned Einstein and understand the kinds of theories he constructed to solve them... This calls for scientific popularization of a high order... Hoffmann [...] does it very effectively." -- Martin Klein and Robert Merton, The New York Times "... succeeds in catching some of Einstein's wholeness, the genius and the human being, the scientist and the responsible citizen." -- Peter Bergmann, Physics Today "What a rewarding and civilizing book for anyone interested in physics, its history, and the look and smell of the whole era during which relativity and quantum physics established themselves! ... this is one of the few [biographies of Einstein] that gives an authentic view from close up" -- Gerald Holton, The Physics Teacher "This book deserves to become a best-seller... I know of no other book on Einstein that gives so complete and well balanced a picture of that great man." -- Otto Robert Frisch "... it is the very product of [Einstein's] brain that most clearly delineates the man, and to get that across, there is none better than Dr. Hoffmann, who can write so charmingly that even General Relativity sounds like a fun thing in its very profound simplicity..." -- Isaac Asimov "Here is an excellent biography of Albert Einstein by a theoretical physicist with broad interests and a deep human understanding... Hoffmann builds a remarkably interesting and human picture of an extremely gifted man..." -- Louis Green, Sky and Telescope

Product Details

BN ID:	2940158926907
Publisher:	Plunkett Lake Press
Publication date:	01/23/2018
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	8 MB

About the Author

Banesh Hoffmann (1906-1986) studied at Merton College, Oxford University in his native England and immigrated to the United States where he earned his doctorate at Princeton working with the noted mathematician Oswald Veblen. He became a US citizen in 1940. After serving as a research associate and instructor in theoretical physics and applied mathematics at the University of Rochester, he returned to Princeton, where, at the Institute for Advanced Study, he collaborated with Albert Einstein and Leopold Infeld on a fundamental contribution to the theory of relativity. He subsequently taught at Queens College of the City University of New York, from which he retired as professor emeritus. He spent sabbaticals and visiting professorships at Harvard, Princeton, and at University of London’s King’s College. Hoffmann was a gifted expositor of science, noted for his ability to explain and popularize the complex theories of modern physics to the general public. The British scientific magazine Discovery wrote about The Strange Story of the Quantum (1947), Hoffmann’s first book: “This book should become one of the great classics of popular but intelligent science writing...” Yale Professor Henry Margenau added: “Of the books attempting an account of the history and contents of modern atomic physics which have come to my attention, this is the best.” Hoffmann worked in various areas, including relativity, quantum theory, and applications of tensor analysis to electrical engineering. An accomplished amateur pianist, he played on occasion piano-violin duets with fellow amateur musician Einstein. He was a Sherlock Holmes “Baker Street Irregular” and wrote the short story Sherlock, Shakespeare and the Bomb. An early and persistent critic challenging the scientific validity of standardized multiple-choice testing, he served for 25 years as a consultant on tests for the Westinghouse Science Talent Search and published The Tyranny of Testing (1962). His Albert Einstein: Creator and Rebel, written with the collaboration of Helen Dukas, Einstein’s secretary since 1927 until his death in 1955, first appeared in 1972. Banesh Hoffmann was married to Doris Goodday and had two children, Laurence, a mathematician and financial advisor, and Deborah, an award-winning documentary filmmaker.