Einstein: His Life and Universe

How did his mind work? What made him a genius? Isaacson’s biography shows how his scientific imagination sprang from the rebellious nature of his personality. His fascinating story is a testament to the connection between creativity and freedom.

Based on newly released personal letters of Einstein, this book explores how an imaginative, impertinent patent clerk—a struggling father in a difficult marriage who couldn’t get a teaching job or a doctorate—became the mind reader of the author of the cosmos, the locksmith of the mysteries of the atom, and the universe. His success came from questioning conventional wisdom and marveling at mysteries that struck others as mundane. This led him to embrace a morality and politics in keeping with respect without spending a dime minds, free spirits, and free individuals.

These traits are just as essential for this new century of globalization, through which our success is dependent upon our creativity, as they were for the beginning of the last century, when Einstein helped usher within the brand new age.