HPS 2814 |
Einstein |
Spring 2023 |
Back to course documents.
Some
Einstein Literature
Disclaimer: the literature on Einstein is so
massive that it is impossible to give a reading list that does not omit
many worthy titles.
Use this list as a starting point.
Introductory Surveys
- Michel Janssen and Christoph Lehner, The Cambridge Companion to
Einstein. Cambridge University Pres, 2014.
- This is a collection of introductory articles written by leading
experts and probably the best place to start.
- John D. Norton, Einstein
for Everyone
- An online book of 46 chapters covering many aspects of Einstein's
work, written at an introductory level, essentially free of mathematics.
- Abraham Pais, Subtle is the Lord: The Science and Life of Albert
Einstein. Oxford: Clarendon, 1982.
- The standard scientific biography of Einstein's work.
- Robert E Kennedy, A Student's Guide to Einstein's Major Papers
Oxford University Press, 2012.
- Ta-Pei Cheng, Einstein's Physics: Atoms, Quanta, and
Relativity--Derived, Explained and Appraised.Oxford University
Press.
- For someone who specifically wants to figure out just how Einstein did
his sums, these are unusually helpful works that focus on reconstructing
Einstein's calculations. Post publication
corrections Einstein's Physics... here.
Collections of Primary Sources
- The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein. Princeton: Princeton
University Press.
- This is a multivolume work and ongoing project by a large editorial
team of Einstein experts. It now comprises 13 volumes with more to come.
It is the definitive resource for Einstein scholarship and includes
Einstein's published works, manuscripts and correspondence. The Einstein
material is presented within an elaborate and highly informative
editorial apparatus that represents some of the best Einstein
scholarship. The Collected Papers includes companion English
translation volumes.
- Digital Einstein
Papers
- In a major contribution to scholarship, Princeton University Press has
made all the material in the Collected Papers accessible on a
website at the indicated link. The material is accessible only one page
at a time and, alas, at rather low resolution. However it is all there.
- Albert Einstein et al., The Principle of Relativity.
Dover.
- A standard edition of Einstein's "On the electrodynamics of moving
bodies" and "Does the inertia of a body depend on its energy content?"
(E=mc2). Also has a key 1904 paper by Lorentz, Minkowski on
spacetime and some of Einstein's later papers on general relativity.
- John Stachel, ed., Einstein's Miraculous Year: Five Papers that
Changed the Face of Physics. Princeton University Press, 1998.
- English translations of the Einstein 1905 corpus. Editorial material
follows Papers, Vol. 2, but in simplified form.
- Albert Einstein, Investigations on the Theory of the Brownian
Movement. Dover.
- A standard edition that contains Einstein's Brownian motion paper and
his dissertation on dilute sugar solutions as well as other related
papers.
- Juergen Renn (ed.), Einstein's Annalen Papers: The Complete
Collection 1901-1922. Wiley VCH, 2005.
- Many of Einstein's most important papers were published in the Annalen
der Physik and are reproduced in facsimile here. There are
several useful introductory essays.
- Einstein's
Annalen Papers Online
- The papers of the last volume are acessible online at this site, along
with a lot of other useful material. It includes the hard-to-find papers
by Einstein in the Prussian Academy "Sitzungsberichte."
- Einstein's
Zurich Notebook
- High quality scans online at the ECHO project. (May no longer be a
live site.)
Einstein's More General Writings
- Relativity, the Special and the General Theory: A Popular
Exposition. 1917 and later.
- This is Einstein's celebrated popularization of relativity theory.
Later editions have significant addenda.
- Sidelights on Relativity: I. Ether and Relativity. II. Geometry
and Experience. London: Methuen, 1922
- Two very important works philosophically. Geometry and Experience,
especially, has exercised a profound influence on 20th century
philosophy of space and time.
- The Meaning of Relativity: Four Lectures Delivered at Princeton
University. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1922. And
later editions.
- This is Einstein's text book development of special and general
relativity.
- Autobiographical Notes. Chicago: Open Court, 1979; also the
initial chapter of P. A. Schilpp (ed.) Albert Einstein:
Philosopher-Scientist. Chicago: Open Court, 1949.
- This is Einstein's biography, which is devoted mostly to his
intellectual developwork and scientific work. The Schilpp volume is a
large collection of articles devoted to Einstein and his work. It
concludes with an illuminating chapter by chapter response by Einstein.
- The World as I See It (1934), Out of My Later Years
(1950), Ideas and Opinions (1954)
- Collections of Einstein's more popular writings, some of great
significance.
Special and General Relativity
- Wolfgang Pauli, Theory of Relativity.Dover.
- A reprint of Pauli's 1921 Teubner Encyclopedia article. It is both an
introduction to relativity theory and a survey of the literature. An
invaluable historical resource.
- Max Born, Einstein's Theory of Relativity. Dover.
- A reprint of Born's work, first published in 1924. It is a popular
exposition but gives much of the historical background in a very
accessible form.
- Arthur Miller, Albert Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity
Addison-Wesley, 1981.
- An expansive collection of material on Einstein's celebrated 1905
paper, the background in electrodynamics preceding and subsequent
developments. The exposition is not always helpful. Has a translation of
the 1905 special relativity paper.
- Juergen Renn, ed., The Genesis of General Relativity. Vol.
1-4. Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science. Springer, 2007.
- This four volume set is the definitive scholarly examination of the
development of general relativity. Its most prominent part is a
facsimile and transcription of Einstein's Zurich notebook and a detailed
commentary that works through the notebook page by page. The volumes
also present translations of other important scientific papers and
secondary discussions by leading historians of science. Available
through SpringerLink in the Pitt library.
- Michel Janssen and Juergen Renn, How Einstein Found His Field
Equations. Sources and Interpretations. Springer, 2022.
- A more accessible survey of Einstein's discovery of general
relativity. Many original sources included.
- Hanoch Gutfreund and Juergen Renn, The Road to Relativity: The
History and Meaning of Einstein's "The Foundation of General
Relativity." Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2015.
- The volume is devoted to Einstein's 1916 survey article, which
Einstein wrote to mark the completion of the general theory of
relativity. It includes Einstein's handwritten manuscript for the review
article in facsimile and considerable supplementary commentary. Can be
read online through the Pitt library.
Surveys
- Edmund Whittaker, A History of the Theories of Aether and
Electricity. Dover.
- A venerable, standard history. Slight idiosyncrasy in attributing
special relativity to Lorentz and Poincare.
- Olivier Darrigol, Electrodynamics from Ampere to Einstein.
Oxford, 2000.
- A more recent, solid history of 19th century electrodynamics.
- Stephen G. Brush, The Kind of Motion We Call Heat: A History of
the Kinetic Theory of Gases in the 19th Century. 2 Vols.
Amsterdam: North Holland, 1976.
- Stephen G. Brush, Statistical Physics and the Atomic Theory of
Matter, from Boyle and Newton to Landau and Onsager. Princeton
Univ. Press, 1983
- Standard histories of statistical physics.
- Mary Jo Nye, Molecular Reality: A Perspective on the Scientific
Work of Jean Perrin. London: MacDonald, 1972.
- A standard account of the atomic debates, focussing on Perrin's
contribution and written from his perspective.
- Max Jammer, The Conceptual Development of Quantum Mechanics.New
York: McGraw-Hill, 1966.
- A now venerable but still standard history of quantum theory.
- Olivier Darrigol, From c-Numbers to q-Numbers: The Classical
Analogy in the History of Quantum Theory Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1992.
- For several decades, one of the best surveys of history of quantum
theory. Out of print, but can be browsed online here.
- Anthony Duncan and Michel Janssen, Constructing Quantum Mechanics,
Volume One: The Scaffold: 1900–1923. Oxford University Press, 2019.
- Now the best history of quantum theory for the time indicated.
Notable Collections
- John Stachel, Einstein from 'B' to 'Z'.Boston: Birkhaeuser,
2002.
- A collection of essays on Einstein by a leading Einstein expert.
- Don Howard and John Stachel, eds., Einstein: The Formative Years,
1879-1909. Boston: Birkhaeuser, 1998.
- Collection of papers on Einstein's early years.
- These are two volumes from the thirteen volume series Einstein
Studies, edited by Don Howard and John Stachel.
Einstein's Philosophy of Science
- Don A. Howard and Marco Giovanelli, "Einstein’s Philosophy of
Science", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Edward N.
Zalta (ed.).
- Don A. Howard, "Albert Einstein as a Philosopher of Science," Physics
Today. December 2005, pp. 34-40.
- P. A. Schilpp (ed.) Albert Einstein: Philosopher-Scientist. Chicago:
Open Court, 1949.
- A large collection of appreciations and reactions to Einstein's work
by his notable comtemporaries:
Sommerfeld, de Broglie, Rosenthal-Schneider, Pauli, Born, Heitler, Bohr,
Margenau, Frank, Reichenbach, Robertson, Bridgman, Lenzen, Northrop,
Milne, Lemaitre, Menger, Infeld, von Laue, Dingle, Goedel, Bachelard,
Wenzl, Ushenko, Hindshaw.
- Jimema Canales, The Physicist and the Philosopher. Einstein,
Bergson and the Debate that Changed our Understanding of Time.
Princeton Univ. Press, 2015.
- Alessandra Campo and Simone Gozzano, Einstein vs. Bergson: An
Enduring Quarrel on Time. De Gruyter, 2022
Some Sources for the 19th Century Background to Relativity
- Fresnel
Ether Drag in John D. Norton, Einstein for Everyone
- H. A. Lorentz, Versuch einer Theorie der electrischen und
optischen Erscheinungen in bewegten Körpern, 1895, E. J. Brill,
Leiden. English Translation at Attempt
of a Theory of Electrical and Optical Phenomena in Moving Bodies.
- Michel Janssen, "The
Trouton Experiment, E = mc2, and a Slice of Minkowski Space-Time,"
In: Abhay Ashtekar et al. (ed.), Revisiting the Foundations of
Relativistic Physics: Festschrift in Honor of John Stachel.
Dordrecht: Kluwer, 2003. Pp. 27–54.
- Michel Janssen and John Stachel, "The
Optics and Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies," Max Planck Institute
for the History of Science, Preprint 265, 2004.
- Michel Janssen, "The drag coefficient from Fresnel to Laue." Ch. 2 in
Physics as a Calling, Science
for Society Studies in Honour of A.J. Kox. Eds. Ad Maas and
Henriëtte Schatz. Leiden Publications.
Biographies
There are very many Einstein biographies, written as many different
levels. Here are just two fairly recent ones:
- Albrecht Foelsing, Albert Einstein: A Biography. Viking, 1997.
- Walter Isaacson, Einstein: His Life and Universe Simon and
Shuster, 2007.
- József Illy, The Practical Einstein: Experiments, Patents,
Inventions. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2012.
Thomas P. Hughes, "Einstein, Inventors, and Invention,"Science in
Context 6, 1(1993), pp. 25-42.
- Einstein was a patent examiner in his 1905 year of miracles and
subsequently continued both to work with patents and inventions for many
years thereafter.
Einstein as a Public Figure
- Siegfried Grundmann, The Einstein Dossiers: Science and Politics
Einstein’s Berlin Period with an Appendix on Einstein’s
FBI File. Springer 2004.
- Einstein's 14 part, full FBI file in the FBI Records "Vault" website.
https://vault.fbi.gov/Albert%20Einstein
- Max Jammer, Einstein and Religion: Physics and Theology.
Princeton University Press, 1999.
- A long standing public fascination has been "did Einstein believe in
God?"