The later chapters focused on Einstein’s involvement in politics and religion. As anti-Semitic sentiments grew and Hitler’s rule imminent, Einstein had little choice but to renounce his German citizenship (once more) and resign from his post. Fortunately, with his celebrity status, offers started to pour in. After some deliberation he would eventually settle down in the United States and took permanent residency in Princeton.
Einstein’s stand towards religion was put into perspective - he believed in a God but not the all seeing, all knowing one that most of us come to respect and more often than not, fear. Einstein believed in “god” beings that are superior to humans but only just that because this helped to explain the as yet unexplainable science. In so doing he stressed that he was no atheist.
In the midst of all these, tragedy struck Einstein’s personal life with the unfortunate passing of his wife Elsa and his youngest son got admitted to an asylum. On the bright side, he got united with his beloved sister Maja and his eldest son Hans Albert.
It wouldn’t be Einstein if the biography did not chronicle his obsession on creating the general theory of relativity AND his efforts to rebut quantum theory and unify field theory. The former was already described in detail earlier while the latter two became his life long quest.
It might be common knowledge but I never knew that Einstein played a small but important role to turn the tide in giving the US the upper hand during World War II. Einstein and fellow Jewish physicists had managed to warn (in the nick of time) President Roosevelt the danger in newly discovered nuclear technology but inadvertently presented the idea of creating the nuclear bomb.
Following the devastation of Japan that subsequently helped win the war, Einstein was mistakenly blamed for his role in the creation of the bomb. He felt a certain guilt to his actions. Following that he reiterated his advocacy in forming a world government that regulates external policies (particularly arms control) while at the same time have no jurisdiction within each nations’ internal governance.
With little contributions to science in his later life, he was thrusted into the public eye due to his political views on individual freedom. Naturally against any oppression, Einstein stood by people wrongly misinterpreted, often causing public outcry.
With the death of his first wife Maric and later his sister Maja, Einstein’s health, too, started to deteriorate. In addition to his stomach ailments and anaemia that plagued him for much of his life, he was diagnosed with aneurysm on his abdominal aorta. This would prove to be the main contributor to his death but he lived on until 1955. Out of wisdom he had refused surgery because he did not want to prolong life but instead to embrace a natural death. He left this world in spirit but to this day his legacy of science and political freedom lived on.
Conclusion
Much like in starting out a new life, I started reading Einstein’s biography without thinking about the end. Starting off as a struggling arrogant, stubborn genius but with a big heart, Einstein passed on at age of 76 due to internal haemorrhaging. It is possible that relative of time, Einstein could live on eternally in the minds of many generations.
I’m truly amazed with the author of this biography, Walter Isaacson on the amount of research he had done. Just look at the references he used at the end of the book - it took almost 90 pages to credit them all.
Overall, if you’re a fan of Einstein and a physics enthusiast, I would not hesitate to recommend this but you do need to be mindful that you have lots of time because it is a very thick book. It took me more than two months!
Previously, I talked about the first few chapters and the middle chapters. Do check them out at the links below:
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