The story of Einstein's short but critical sojourn in Prague and his milieu during this time period.
Michael D. Gordin is the Rosengarten Professor of Modern and Contemporary History at Princeton University. His books include A Well-Ordered Thing: Dmitrii Mendeleev and the Shadow of the Periodic Table and Five Days in August: How World War II Became a Nuclear War (both Princeton). He lives in Princeton, New Jersey. Twitter @GordinMichael
"Meticulous in scholarship and erudite in tone . . . [Einstein in
Bohemia] will doubtless become an essential reference for anyone
researching what has usually been seen as a minor chapter in
Einstein’s life."---Andrew Crumey, Wall Street Journal
"Einstein in Bohemia is as much a series of essays on historical
method and memory as it is a biography that uses Einsteinian ideas
about perspective and spacetime to riff about the relationship
between past and present, space and place. It’s also very much a
book about Prague. It works in movements, looking backward and
forward from Einstein’s Bohemian interlude to explore issues of
biography, physics, Czech and German nationalism, the philosophy of
science, literature, Jewishness, and public monuments. It is best
savored in chunks, to better indulge in moments of
reflection."---Audra J. Wolfe, Los Angeles Review of Books
"His original and illuminating study . . . is a fascinating mix of
urban and scientific history, and a genuinely original contribution
to Einstein studies that explores both the effect of the city on
the scientist and the lasting impact Einstein’s presence had on the
cultural and scientific life of Prague itself."---P. D. Smith,
Times Literary Supplement
"Gordin explores unknown connections and forgotten biographies with
impressive scholarly meticulousness and fervor."---Tilman Sauer,
Science
"[Gordin] explodes the narrative out of what he calls the
'spacetime interval' of 1911–12 to follow a host of figures who
were involved with Einstein in Prague, in some cases very
tangentially. In so doing, he careers through the history of ideas
as well as the political turmoil of Bohemia (now part of the Czech
Republic) during most of the twentieth century, touching on
physics, philosophy, nationhood, anti-Semitism and the rise of
Prague as a centre of intellectual life."---Pedro Ferreira,
Nature
"A meticulously researched, accessible, and fascinating portrait of
Einstein."---Glenn C. Altschuler, Jerusalem Post
"Gordin's Einstein in Bohemia affords us a refreshingly different
kind of perspective on Einstein in context. The book treats its
location - Prague in 1911 and 1912 - not merely as a backdrop, but
as an integral part of the drama."---Don Howard, Physics Today
"[A] deeply researched, wide-ranging and original book."---Andrew
Robinson, Physics World
"I was gripped . . . this is such a delightful and unusual
book."---Richard Joyner, Times Higher Education
"Einstein in Bohemia is a methodological confection, carefully
concocted from an unlikely pairing of the textures and flavors of
two historical ingredients: Einstein and Prague."---M. Norton Wise,
ISIS
"[This] book paints a rich picture of a small part in Einstein's
life that will be fascinating to anyone interested not only in the
scientist but also his historical context."
*Nature Astronomy*
"Through extensive primary sources, Gordin explores the effect that
Prague’s rich history infused into Einstein’s life, and the way
that Einstein made his own significant mark on Bohemia’s
story."---Alden Hunt, Princeton Alumni Weekly
"Gordin handles the theme of ‘belonging’ with great nuance and
understanding."---David Luhrssen, The Shepherd Express
"In this deeply researched and documented study, Gordin treats this
brief period in Einstein's life as a prism through which the
physicist refracts a broad range of intellectual, personal,
scientific, and religious topics. The author sees Einstein as a
window to understand Prague, and vice-versa, and reveals, in
elegant and engaging prose, stimulating insights into many larger
issues."---P. W. Knoll, Choice
"[Gordin] is a vivid writer who uses a biographical approach to
bring the past and its people alive. . . . This account of
[Einstein's] challenging interlude in Bohemia is at once
informative, engaging, and enjoyable."---Simon Mitton, The
Observatory
"Einstein in Bohemia is a stunning book that should make one think
differently about place, time, identity, and historical causation.
It is provocative and methodologically fascinating – indeed, one
could teach an entire graduate methods seminar just from the
introduction. It is beautifully written from start to finish and is
compelling on every page. This is a must-read for historians of
science, or really historians in general – and anyone interested in
what it means to be in a place, at a time, and how those affect who
someone is."---Matthew Stanley, Annals of Science
"Gordin’s book is refreshing, engaging, sucks you into Eastern
Europe where all the magic happened in the 1910s."---Adam Tamas
Tuboly, Review of History of Philosophy of Science Books
"[A] fascinating volume on the undersung importance of the sixteen
months Albert Einstein spent in Prague (the capital of Bohemia) as
a professor of theoretical physics at the German University there
from early April 1911 to late July 1912."---Naomi Pasachoff,
Metascience
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