Frank einstein biography book review

'The brilliant thing about this book is that it is half fiction and half non-fiction, perfect for anyone interested in science'.

This is a great upper-elementary read....

When Einstein Was Just Another Physicist

Audra Wolfe shows how the banality of Einstein’s time in Prague is precisely the point of Michael Gordin’s new book, “Einstein in Bohemia.”

Einstein in Bohemia by Michael D.

Gordin. Princeton University Press, 2020. 360 pages.

AROUND 15 OR 20 years ago, in the early aughts of this century, it was faddish in certain corners of the history of science to write biographies of obscure figures.

This book is not the most complete biography of Einstein, but I still think it is the most intelligent, and the most beautifully written.

  • This book is not the most complete biography of Einstein, but I still think it is the most intelligent, and the most beautifully written.
  • Phillip Frank's biography anchors the reader with a lucid overview of physics and draws an intimate portrait of the Nobel Prize–winner.
  • This is a great upper-elementary read.
  • Readers will be drawn in by amusing and fantastical elements in the comic book theme, high emotional stakes that arouse sympathy, and well-drawn character.
  • A vibrant writing style, abundant illustrations, and creative typography appeal to both young and reluctant readers,.

    • The idea was that understanding the life of run-of-the-mill researchers would tell us more about how science actually operates than would studies of rarefied individuals. Enough with Darwin and Newton; it was time to excavate the life of moderately successful 19th-century zoology professors at land-grant universities.

    This wasn’t quite a call for social history — these studies generally retained the discipline’s traditional focus on the intellectual accomplishments of relatively elite individuals — but it did reflect a yearning to incorporate the