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A review by annieb123
Einstein on the Run: How Britain Saved the World's Greatest Scientist by Andrew Robinson
5.0
Originally published on my blog Nonstop Reader.
Einstein on the Run is a period focused biography about Einstein and how the British government interceded on his behalf and shielded him for a short period in 1933 in a remote part of England as well as his near-lifetime collaboration and friendship with other scientists and philosophers living in the UK. Released 8th Oct 2019 by Yale University Press, it's 376 pages and available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats.
There have been so many biographies of Einstein and his life is so well documented that I didn't expect this biography to bring much more to the table than previous offerings. I was wrong. This is a meticulously detailed and respectfully rendered biography from which I gleaned quite a lot of new information. There are so many new (to me) photographs, excerpts from letters and interviews, contemporaneous comments from the media and colleagues that combined to give this biography a richness and accessibility showing him more as a human being and less as the iconic remote titan of physics which he also was.
The author, Andrew Robinson, is an experienced biographer and science writer (with several previous biographies including at least one other Einstein bio). The book definitely could've been very dry and academic, indeed the constraints of rigidity and proof inherent in biography writing might well trend toward the dry and factual recitation of dates and statistics, but the narrative here is warm and human, and engaging. The book has extensive footnotes, annotations, and references, but they don't overshadow the text. The book also includes an extensive bibliography and cross-referenced index for further reading.
Five stars. I really enjoyed this one. This would be a superlative selection for fans of science, Einstein, biography, 20th century cultural icons, etc.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
Einstein on the Run is a period focused biography about Einstein and how the British government interceded on his behalf and shielded him for a short period in 1933 in a remote part of England as well as his near-lifetime collaboration and friendship with other scientists and philosophers living in the UK. Released 8th Oct 2019 by Yale University Press, it's 376 pages and available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats.
There have been so many biographies of Einstein and his life is so well documented that I didn't expect this biography to bring much more to the table than previous offerings. I was wrong. This is a meticulously detailed and respectfully rendered biography from which I gleaned quite a lot of new information. There are so many new (to me) photographs, excerpts from letters and interviews, contemporaneous comments from the media and colleagues that combined to give this biography a richness and accessibility showing him more as a human being and less as the iconic remote titan of physics which he also was.
The author, Andrew Robinson, is an experienced biographer and science writer (with several previous biographies including at least one other Einstein bio). The book definitely could've been very dry and academic, indeed the constraints of rigidity and proof inherent in biography writing might well trend toward the dry and factual recitation of dates and statistics, but the narrative here is warm and human, and engaging. The book has extensive footnotes, annotations, and references, but they don't overshadow the text. The book also includes an extensive bibliography and cross-referenced index for further reading.
Five stars. I really enjoyed this one. This would be a superlative selection for fans of science, Einstein, biography, 20th century cultural icons, etc.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.