Einstein, History, and Other Passions: The Rebellion against Science at the End of the Twentieth Century

by Gerald Holton

“[The] book makes a wonderfully cohesive whole. It is rich in ideas, elegantly expressed. I highly recommend it to any serious student of science and culture.”―Lucy Horwitz, Boston Book Review

“An important and lasting contribution to a more profound understanding of the place of science in our culture.”―Hans C. von Baeyer, Boston Sunday Globe

“[Holton’s] themes are central to an understanding of the nature of science, and Holton does an excellent job of identifying and explaining key features of the scientific enterprise, both in the historical sense and in modern science…I know of no better informed scientist who has studied the nature of science for half a century.”―Ron Good, Science and Education

Through his rich exploration of Einstein’s thought, Gerald Holton shows how the best science depends on great intuitive leaps of imagination, and how science is indeed the creative expression of the traditions of Western civilization.

Genres: Philosophy, Science

256 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1994

About the author

Gerald James Holton (1922-) is Mallinckrodt prof. of physics and prof. of the hist. of science at Harvard University

Reviews

[Hubert · Rating 3 out of 5]

A moderately connected series of essays that elucidates the nature of scientific discovery, particularly early 20th-century physics. Earlier parts of the book describes how the public came to acknowledge and interpret scientific findings, and the role of trust and reliability of findings. Holton identifies how the philosophical outlook changed especially in the earlier 20th century from one reliant on religiosity to that relying on observation and empiricism.

Holton keys in on scientific imagination, the necessity of thinking outside the box in order to come up with new ideas that expand the boundaries of meaning. He references key attitudes of Einstein (e.g. the merging of large-scale and minute-scale phenomena) that allowed him reach revolutionary thoughts.

One curious chapter outlines his early romance with the woman who would be his first wife; somehow this chapter seemed a bit out of place with the rest of the book, but was a fascinating entry into Einstein's personal life and provided something of a timeline of his personal life as well as his early scientific career.

Definitely a dense book, so deserves a reread.