I pay this book greatest compliment I can pay to any biography: I felt like I met, and really got to know, Albert Einstein.
Isaacson is not incumbered by the fad of skepticism which leads men to debunk and attack great historical figures. His presentation is honest, but not judgmental; admiring, but not a hagiography. However, his appreciation of Einstein leads him, toward the end of the book, to downplay and excuse Einstein’s faults. To excuse these faults (especially communist sympathies) he portrays Einstein as naive and absentminded. Yes, Einstein is the embodiment of the absent-minded professor, but Isaacson represents him as being so absentminded that his earlier acheivements seem almost impossible.
In getting to know Einstein I got a glimpse of the greatness of his piercing intellect; I felt I was in the presence of a rare and elevated mind, with exceptional powers. Apparently, these powers were fueld by one particular trait: curiosity. This is an important lesson for educators. How often do we value curiosity in our present system? Not much, in my experience.
There is much to admire in Einstein’s personal qualities. He was not beholden to authority. Thus, he had the courage to disagree with prevailing opinion, and go against the grain (I was reminded of Luther). He also had an innate nobility. He was imbued with a humility that arose from a sense of wonder and awe at something in universe which was greater than him; something which revealed his own finiteness.
I am in debt to Einstein, via this biography, for teaching me what it means that God is personal, i.e. God is involved, and active in the world he created. Einstein, of course, believed exactly the opposite, in a God who ‘did not meddle.’ Still, it was in seeing Einstein’s picture of an impersonal God that my own understanding of the ‘personality’ of God came into focus. I know, better than ever, what I don’t believe; I don’t believe God is impersonal. Einstein’s view was like a black cloth against my diamond.
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