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Science » Lives of Scientists » Albert Einstein

Browse book recommendations:

Lives of Scientists

  • Albert Einstein

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Albert Einstein, born in Ulm in Germany in 1879, was one of the greatest scientists who ever lived, and nearly 2000 books have been written about him. Astonishingly, he came up with a number of his groundbreaking ideas—including his theory of special relativity—in 1905, when he was working in Switzerland as a patent clerk.

We've interviewed the authors of two Einstein biographies, Andrew Robinson and Walter Isaacson, about which books to read to learn more about him, and you'll see their book recommendation interviews below. Robinson is an experienced science writer, Isaacson a biographer (who also wrote a fantastic biography of Steve Jobs) so that may affect which book and/or interview you turn to first.

Because of Einstein's importance to physics, books about him come up again and again across Five Books. One of our most highly recommended books is the biography of him by Abraham Pais, Subtle is the Lord. Bear in mind though, that this is a scientific biography, so if your knowledge of physics and relativity is shaky, it's probably not the best place to start.

"The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility…The fact that it is comprehensible is a miracle"—Albert Einstein

Also viewed as essential are the Born-Einstein Letters, which detail debates about quantum mechanics between two of the greatest scientists of the 20th century, Einstein and his friend Max Born—a debate that continues to this day.

Albert Einstein also of course wrote books himself, including his book Relativity, intended for a popular audience. While fascinating to dip into, Relativity is quite hard to follow as a lay person, so secondary accounts of his great theory are probably better to get you started. As Dan Hooper, science popularizer and Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Chicago, put it, “If somebody asked me for a book to learn about relativity, I probably wouldn’t pick Einstein’s." Instead, he recommends Black Holes and Time Warps by the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Kip Thorne, as the best book to get started with understanding relativity.

Also recommended on Five Books is Driving Mr Albert, an extraordinary story about what happened to Einstein’s brain after he died.

    The best books on Albert Einstein, recommended by Andrew Robinson

  • Read
    The best books on Albert Einstein - Albert Einstein: A Biography by Albrecht Folsing

    1

    Albert Einstein: A Biography
    by Albrecht Folsing

  • Read
    The best books on Albert Einstein - Einstein 1905: The Standard of Greatness by John S. Rigden

    2

    Einstein 1905: The Standard of Greatness
    by John S. Rigden

  • Read
    The best books on Albert Einstein - The Born-Einstein Letters,1916-1955 by Albert Einstein and Max Born

    3

    The Born-Einstein Letters,1916-1955
    by Albert Einstein and Max Born

  • Read
    The best books on Albert Einstein - The Einstein File by Fred Jerome

    4

    The Einstein File
    by Fred Jerome

  • Read
    The best books on Albert Einstein - Einstein on Politics by David Rowe and Robert Schulmann

    5

    Einstein on Politics
    by David Rowe and Robert Schulmann

The best books on Albert Einstein, recommended by Andrew Robinson

Andrew Robinson, author of a biography of Albert Einstein, picks and talks through the five best Albert Einstein books and discusses the life and times of the ‘unique genius.’

    The best books on Einstein, recommended by Walter Isaacson

  • Read
    The best books on Einstein - Einstein’s Clocks, Poincaré’s Maps by Peter Galison

    1

    Einstein’s Clocks, Poincaré’s Maps
    by Peter Galison

  • Read
    The best books on Einstein - The Fabric of the Cosmos by Brian Greene

    2

    The Fabric of the Cosmos
    by Brian Greene

  • Read
    The best books on Einstein - Evolution of Physics by Albert Einstein and Leopold Infeld

    3

    Evolution of Physics
    by Albert Einstein and Leopold Infeld

  • Read
    The best books on Einstein - Einstein’s Dreams by Alan Lightman

    4

    Einstein’s Dreams
    by Alan Lightman

  • Read
    The best books on Einstein - Einstein in Love by Dennis Overbye

    5

    Einstein in Love
    by Dennis Overbye

The best books on Einstein, recommended by Walter Isaacson

The former editor of Time magazine and CEO of CNN talks to us about the life and work of Albert Einstein, including the bet with his wife that left her with his Nobel Prize money and him with a divorce.

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We ask experts to recommend the five best books in their subject and explain their selection in an interview.

This site has an archive of more than one thousand seven hundred interviews, or eight thousand book recommendations. We publish at least two new interviews per week.

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