by Bruce J. Hillman ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 14, 2015
A footnote to modern theoretical physics and the history of science. Readers may prefer the bigger picture provided by John...
History of the clash between “German” and “Jewish” physics in the early decades of the last century.
That clash explains why Albert Einstein ended up at Princeton and why his self-appointed nemesis, Philipp Lenard, ended his years stripped of academic rank but worshipping Adolf Hitler to the end. In what former University of Virginia School of Medicine chief of radiology Hillman (co-author: The Sorcerer’s Apprentice—How Medical Imaging is Changing Health Care, 2010) calls “a memorable, character-driven story,” Lenard emerges as a kind of furious, single-minded Javert whose particular branch of experimental physics relied on studies of more or less observable phenomena, much removed from the theoretical physics in which Einstein traded. That divide, Hillman writes, had its origin in World War I and the virtual blockade of German scientists, cut off from the international community and defiantly nationalistic as a result. Einstein’s refusal to play along and his more independent path of inquiry earned him widespread antipathy. That, coupled with Lenard’s growing anti-Semitism and general ire over Einstein’s popularity, set a pattern of persecution that would last for as long as Einstein worked within the sphere of German influence—and Lenard bore more than his share of the burden of making Einstein’s life miserable. The writing is mostly serviceable, if sometimes infelicitous, but the storytelling is too often clunky and digressive. Einstein is given the sobriquet “the relativity Jew,” and Max Planck spends "an uncomfortable minute" with Hitler, while Lenard imagines him wondering, “how had he become so old?” and straining “against the constricting dark tie and starch-stiff collar that bit into his thin, old man’s skin.” Well, that’s what he gets for tangling with the quantum, one might think, but his larger punishment lies in being mostly forgotten today.
A footnote to modern theoretical physics and the history of science. Readers may prefer the bigger picture provided by John Cornwell’s Hitler’s Scientists (2003) and the better-written works on Einstein by Walter Isaacson and Alan Lightman, among others.Pub Date: April 14, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4930-1001-1
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Lyons Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2015
Share your opinion of this book
by Elie Wiesel & translated by Marion Wiesel ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 16, 2006
The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
Share your opinion of this book
More by Elie Wiesel
BOOK REVIEW
by Elie Wiesel ; edited by Alan Rosen
BOOK REVIEW
by Elie Wiesel ; illustrated by Mark Podwal
BOOK REVIEW
by Elie Wiesel ; translated by Marion Wiesel
by Chris Gardner with Quincy Troupe ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 1, 2006
Well-told and admonitory.
Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.
Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.
Well-told and admonitory.Pub Date: June 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-074486-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006
Share your opinion of this book
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Hey there, book lover.
We’re glad you found a book that interests you!
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Don’t fret. We’ll find you.