this is clearly the best book I 've read on Hitler. Very unbiased and focused, the author reviews the successes and opportunities as well as the mistakes, errors and crimes of this greatest politician maybe of all times.
Haffner (the author) is able to take a look at ideas, and ideologies from a very neutral viewpoint and talk about them intelligently without emotional bias ("this is bad because Hitler believed in it"). If you want to understand the strange phenomenum -Hitler, this book is a must.

A book written during the Cold War (1977) by a German journalist who emigrated to the UK in 1938 and worked there for most of his life. In a thin book Sebastian Haffner is capable of gving a razor sharp analysis of Hitler's successes and shortcomings. In 7 chapters he discusses his life, achievements, successes, mistakes, failures, crimes and finally treason.

De book has as hypothesis that Hitler's actions could only lead to the ultimate defeat, but also that he tried to aggravate this defeat to make it as heavy as possible for the German people who had deserted him. Hitler had a two-pronged approach: on the one hand he wanted to fight a war for world rule, one the other hand he wanted to destroy as many Jews (and gipsies and homosexuals and mentally ill people) as possible. This last aim was in conflict with the first one because the people and infrastructure necessary for this left his generals with unsolvable problems. Also, Haffner shows that there were 2 opportunities (1938 and 1940) when Hitler could have come out with an enormous gain in territory if he could have been content with what he had achieved.

The only minor drawback of the book is in my opinion that, even though Hitler was the one who took all the decisions, he needed people to execute these decisions. Haffner brushes aside this side of things a little too easy, leaving Hitler as the sole criminal. Despite this drawback, this is till a very intriguing book.

I read this book several years ago in Dr. Blakemore's History of Germany Class at Mary Washington College. I still often refer to the book. Short and to the point the book shows beyond a doubt how Hitler destroyed Germany. Not only is this a good look at Hitler and the Nazis but the book destroys the myth that Hitler did some good for Germany. This book shows the true Hitler and the terrible things he did. Again, there are many good books on Hitler: Toland's work, Study in Tyranny by Bullock, Explaining Hitler, etc. but for a quick read, and a informative one, read this book.

"Yes" is the story of a man who lives in rural Austria, a scientist with an overactive imagination, and a psychologically oversensitive nature. His friend, a real-estate agent, sells a highly undesirable plot of land to a Swiss couple, a man retiring from a successful career as a power-station architect, and his female companion, a middle-aged Persian woman. The narrator strikes a friendship with the woman, and finds her his intellectual equal, or at least his emotional one. He wonders why this couple has chosen that horrible plot of land (which his friend had never previously been able to sell), and why they are building an ugly home on it.

He begins to suspect the retiring architect does not treat his female companion with as much respect as she deserves. He retreats into his home for a time, trying to get away from the world, in a fit of general agitation and anxiety, but eventually returns to his friends' company, and deepens his friendship with the Persian woman, who seems to be growing apart from her companion. The novel ends with an emotional shock, summarizing the story's happenings, and explaining it in highly dramatic terms.

This novel is unequivocally brilliant. Thomas Bernhard (1931-1989) does not employ a style easy to understand at first, but it is worth every ounce of energy invested. For example, he has written this short novel with no paragraph breaks whatsoever. (The book is 135 pages long, but the type is larger than usual and the pages shorter than usual.)

Bernhard writes in an overflowing, fulsome style, not unlike Samuel Beckett, full of language, full of description, incessant, and captivating. This is exactly his strategy: he is trying to capture the reader by forcing them to expend so much energy following his text, his narrative, his story, and his unusual style, that the final words of the story will hit the reader like a ton of bricks. This is Bernhard's signature, and this novel is a fantastic example.

Any reader should try this novel who is interested in an inventive, experimental novel, but one which does not veer too far from normal story-telling. Berhard's novels, for all their roller-coaster style, are actually quite conventional, and "Yes" is a great introduction to his literary work. His vocabulary is sharp, his characters are well spun, his occasional insights are spectacular, and his stories are intruiguing. This novel is highly recommended for anyone wishing to sharpen their mind, find a new adventure after having enjoyed Beckett's works, or introduce themself to one of the finest writers of the 20th century.

This novel was my first exposure to Thomas Bernhard and I have to admit I was initially put off by its style. Some of the sentences went on for a page and half, using only commas as punctuation. After the first page or two I began to enjoy it. The plot is very simple. The narrator is a scientist who has retired to the Austrian countryside to conduct his research on antibodies. At first he believes that the isolation will benefit his studies but gradually, he works less and less, due to the great depression that comes over him. He begins to cut off all relations with the outside world, keeping only a token connection with his friend, Moritz. When he comes to recognize that his mind can only be stimulated by socializing with other people it is too late. He cannot free himself of his terrible loneliness. It's been so long since he has communicated with a human being he doesn't know where to start. All this changes when a Swiss engineer and a Persian woman show up at Moritz's house to buy a plot of land to build a home on. Talking with the woman, the narrator finds new life, but tragically, it will be shortlived.

This is a great novel. I have never seen the mindset of isolation and the depression that follows better portrayed. The style of the piece lends itself to a breathless reading. You don't notice that periods are scarce after a while. It has an exquisite flow to it. All the characters are nicely done. The translation is excellent. I really have nothing negative to say about it.

I have long been a fan of Bernhard, and this is one of my favorites. It appears to be less ambitious than his "masterpieces," but this untrue. I find it to be one of his most intimate, intelligent, comical and most brutal pieces of work. It is incredibly concise and as readable as "Wittgenstein's Nephew." It contains everything one desires of Bernhard, due in part to the fine translation, stripped down to the to the bone. Something is always lost in translation, but an excellent ear and eye has been at work here. It is a poetic masterpiece with blinding light, brialliant language, and a twisted satori. Aside from the politcal, moral, social and philosophical criticism that is Bernhard's trademark, there is a unbelievable consecration between the author and reader that takes place and demands that "you must change your life." If you allow it to happen you will be left with nothing but an eyelash and a sock, but you will find that the author with all his vitriol,sarcasm,and "so black it's blue" humor, has still preserved what is best in the human heart, and damn, he tells a good story.

Thomas Bernhard must have been the bane of the Austrian cultural world during his lifetime. His favorite style is an endless, run-on paragraph, seething with rage and pain at every turn. If you don't catch that these crabby narrators are constantly undermining their own credibility, you might not see how funny these books are. Old Masters involves an old musicologist, who spends every other day in front of the same painting in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. This 150-page assault on Western art and music (few are spared: Mahler, Beethoven, Mozart, Bach, and especially Bruckner are given real tongue-lashings, and at one point he implies the painting he always looks at is a forgery) might annoy you, until you realize that, as flawed as these great works might be, they're all we have to keep us going day to day. Life without these Old Masters would be unbearable. The narrator is slow to admit this, but when the admission comes, it's heart-breaking. For someone to complain this vigorously about the limits of Austrian art and culture, he must have loved his homeland very dearly indeed. You won't be disappointed in this one.

This a book about two grumpy old men. " ..he does not like solar radiation. He avoids the sun, there is nothing he shuns more than the sun. 'I hate the sun, you know that I hate the sun more than anything in the world,' he says. What he likes best are foggy days, on foggy days he leaves the house very early in the morning, actually takes a walk, which he does not normally do, for basically he hates walking. I hate walking, he says,it seems so pointless to me. I walk, and while I am walking I keep thinking how I hate walking, I have no other thoughts at the time, I cannot understand that there are people who are able to think of something other than that walking is pointless and useless, he says." If you cannot find this very funny then this book is not for you. In 156 pages there are no paragraphs, or chapters. But there is excellent prose and conversations on philosophy of life, art, suicide, class, Catholicism, nationalism, culture......life. Very funny and perhaps sad too, but in the end strangely exhilarating. A wonderful read.

Yes,it is enjoyable and considering the dark and disturbing contexts of his other novels it is indeed a comedy.Yet it is seriously constructed and top quality novella.

Oxford University Press' ongoing translation of the German government's official history of the Second World War, Das Deutsche Reich und der Zweite Weltkrieg, has produced yet another fine volume. This is to my knowledge the best work available on Germany's attack on the Soviet Union. The sheer scope and depth of the campaign are laid out in astonishing detail.

This is the 4th volume of the "Official German" history of World War II. There are suppossed to be 10 volumes altogether. Volume 4 is so far the most ambitious and controvesial of the set. It is well over 1000 pages, many, many tables, charts etc. It even comes with a spiral bound 4 color map book that shows the operational side of the conflict. Considering that this tome covers the decision to invade, the build up, and attack from June 1941 thru December 1941 you will understand the scope of this project. While laying the bulk of the blame on the conflict to the Nazi's, there is some discussion on the new revisionist thinking that Stalin was in fact preparing a strike into Germany but was forestalled by the German assult. I will let you the reader figure out which way the book tends to go. The translation from the German is very good, I had no trouble following the text. This book and series is not meant for a first time introduction to World War II; great detail is given on the socio/economic aspects of this conflict that rarely get mentioned at all the standard popular books. All in all a great addition to the series and a wonderful new look at a topic that never seems to go out of style. You will love it in your library!!

So runs the theme of this most excellent work by Sociologist Henner Hess. In point of fact, the Mafiosi came well before the Mafia, a secret crime organization supposedly having it's roots deep in history: in reality, such a Mafia never existed, and what most of us think of today as the Mafia is mainly a fairly recent example of life imitating art.

The subculture of Mafiosi had its beginnings in the 1860s as an extension of feudalism in Sicily. In Hess's book we meet the true Mafiosi, uomo d'onore, a man of honor, the Godfather. He is the Don who is the self-made man, able to do well for himself and his family, able to solve his own problems without help from the State, which he disdains. This is the Mafia of Don Corleone, a man of respect who uses illegal methods to protect the land owning nobility he tenants and advance his own means through extortion, intimidation, theft, and of course, murder.

Hess easily dismisses the historical fallacies of an ancient foundation for a Mafia, rooted in culture, religion, Freemasonry or other popular esoteric sources. Surprisingly, the Mafia of secret rituals and structured crime families competing and cooperating on an immense scale in international crime is a relatively recent phenomenon in Italy, one imported from America. Indeed, the American Mafiosi's Sicilian country cousin has been as much influenced by him and the movies and books such as the Godfather about him, that this once mainly agrarian phenomenon has changed to meet those concepts. It was not until well after publication of the Godfather that the Coreleonisi Mafiosi, wanting to imitate the artistic depiction of their own values of Omerta, made themselves the most powerful crime Organization in Italy.

This is a truly fascinating read, both scholarly and entertaining, and the most reliable book on the origins of the Sicilian Mafia I have come across.

War with the Newts is a good book not only for its intellectual value but also for enjoyment. The plot is interesting and easily captivating. In an age where exploitation in its many forms (politically, racially, environmentally, etc.) is still prevalent, the books stands as a strong satire to the possible, if not far off, consequences of society's actions. As the satire builds and the newts gain control, the book becomes more interesting, especially in a realistic sense with its constant explanatory footnotes and articles from such established periodicals as National Geographic. The final chapter is noteworthy, as Capek reveals his consciousness of the reader and his/her possible reactions to the brief (some would say sudden) ending. An easy and entertaining read, War with the Newts is defintely worth reading. (Personal note: About time, Mr. Rutstein.)

In a remarkably funny and thought-provoking book, Karel Capek portrays the 20th century in all its monstrosity. He cleverly demasks militarism, racism, and cut-throat capitalism with a story about man-like newts who are exploited by greedy and power-hungry humans. More than anything, Capek's book is an attack on modern culture's emphasis on science and technology to the detriment of humanity and civilization. This culture includes nationalist ideology, which is useful in excusing atrocities and excesses. As a result, the future of mankind itself is threatened (World War II, needless to say, proved Capek's point).

The newts, discovered far away in the Dutch East Indies by an eccentric captain, are spread around the world with funds from a wealthy industrialist syndicate. They learn how to use tools, even how to speak, and soon they are used not only for commercial but also for military purposes. Afraid to fall behind in the underwater arms race, leaders ignore the possibility that the newts one day might rise up against their masters...

Although Capek is addressing difficult and serious questions, his writing is amusing to the point of hilarity. The style of writing is mock-serious and satirical. Here is a writer who knows people, and has the ability to bring out the comedy within the great human tragedy. I recommend this book to anyone with a sense of humor and a concern for the future of civilization.

...and this is also the genesis of science fiction as a medium for social commentary. Long before Kurt Vonnegut, Philip K. Dick, and Douglas Adams mined science fiction for dark pearls of wisdom, Karel Capek set the stage with the delightful "War with the Newts." A long-time favorite of mine ever since I studied it in a literature class in college, I enjoy revisiting this book time and time again. Capek effectively uses a time-line approach to document the exploitation of the "newts," all the while poking fun at (then-current) Aryan superiority, rascism, and "bonehead" science. The assumption of the inferiority of certain classes of people is shown by Capek to inevitably lead to the downfall of the world as we know it. Since Capek's time, other authors have followed his path with some success, but Capek remains the master of this genre, and, along with H. G. Wells, Olaf Stapledon, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and Jules Verne (oft-imitated authors in their own right), he must be considered one of the pioneers of modern science fiction

Safranski has given the interested public an excellent overview of Heidegger's life and intellectual development in this well-researched volume. As much a work of philosophy in its own right, the book's ability to explain often terribly difficult sections of Heidegger's thought makes it worth the effort it sometimes takes to read. Safranski does a princely job writing a biography of a philospher; in other words, Safranski deals with the thought as much as the man. With Heidegger, it is especially difficult to separate the two.

Heidegger's thought suffers from two extremes: those who wish to villify him for his cowardice and complicity in the face of National Socialism, especially his seeming whole-hearted endorsement of the application of the Führer-prinzip in the German universities, and those who want to pretend that Heidegger was (and is) misunderstood and mischaracterized. The truth, it seems, lies somewhere in between these two positions. I think that the title of Safranski's book, playing as it does off of Nietzche's Von Gut und Böse, accurately illustrates the author's take on Heidegger. Like most men of his time, he was between good and evil, a bit of both, and therefore morally ambiguous. This position does not satisfy Heidegger's diciples, nor does it mollify his persecuters. However, it is likely the position we will have to live with.

The application of Heidegger's work to philosphy and social sciences in the decades following the war shows that the "proof is in the pudding" when it comes to speaking of Heidegger's Philosophiepolitik. Many of the most anti-facist streams of thought to arise in the mid- and later-twentieth century, such as deconstruction and existentialism, were directly the result of thinkers dealing seriously with the implications of Heidegger's thought. No one today studying or teaching Heidegger's philosphy can afford to neglect this excellent book.

This is an excellent and dispassionate biography of Heidegger's career. This is mainly an intellectual biography with a minimum of personal detail presented. Safranski does a superb job of explicating Heidegger's thought and provides concise, insightful summaries of Heidegger's intellectual milieu. Heidegger emerges as a man of remarkable talent and ambition. His goal was nothing less than a reformulation of philosophy on radically new bases. He set out to destroy the metaphysics of Kant, Descartes, Aristotle and saw himself as the equal of Plato. He succeeded to a great extent though at the cost of greatly narrowing the scope of philosophic inquiry and as Safranski demonstrates, he did not produce positive results in the sense of the metaphysics of his chosen targets. Safranski deals very well with Heidegger's notorious period of enthusiasm for Nazism. He demonstrates that Heidegger's often fervent support for Hitler grew directly from Heidegger's philosophical preoccupations of the late 20s and early 30s. Safranski shows as well that Heidegger dropped Nazism because the Nazis were insufficiently revolutionary for Heidegger. Heidegger made no more forays into public life but spent the remainder of his career as a philosophical oracle. This biography is more than a good introduction to Heidegger's thought, it is a real contribution to the intellectual history of the 20th century.

Safranski's book makes an excellent case for the idea of an intellectual biography. It demonstrates that something material is left out when we consider a thinker's work entirely outside the life and context that produced it. For instance, Safranski's account allows one to discern the peculiarly performative aspect of this philosophy. Heidegger is revealed as a thinker who early on was quite conscious both of his great ambitions and of precisely what--in the feverish intellectual climate of the Weimar republic--was needed to fulfill them. Thus the overwhelming success of Being and Time upon its publication can be appreciated as not only a philosophic achievement, but also as a coup of intellectual self-promotion.

Another virtue of the work is the detached, and at times bemused distance Safranski adopts toward his subject. Given the gravity of the issues at stake, one might object that detachment is hardly called for; yet Safranski's relative coolness permits the damning facts to speak for themselves with that much more force. And none does so more loudly than the matter-of-fact, almost inevitable way in which Heidegger embraced National Socialism. Behind the grotesque intellectual irresponsibility of someone who must have known better we can make out--disturbingly--only a diffuse, tepid banality.

In order for this shock to hit home, Safranski must of course first convince us of Heidegger's genius, and he does not disappoint here. The chapter on Being and Time alone makes the book worth buying. Unlike other English-language expositions--especially some highly sympathetic ones--the work never produces the disagreable feeling that Heidegger's words are being "translated" for our consumption. Instead they are allowed to retain that degree of opacity which is probably so essential to their influence and evocativeness. Yet the quality of Safranski's overall exposition is such that, at those times when he chides his subject for hyperbole or obscurantism, one never feels that he i! s motivated by the impatience of Heidegger's usual no-nonsense, positivist critics.

The name Heidegger has apparently always generated strong feelings. Safranski's relatively detached approach ("balanced" is not quite the word I would use) has as one of its beneficial effects a subtle kind of displacement. It allows us to see that it is ultimately not Heidegger that is most at stake, but the nature of philosophy itself. Heidegger's thought freed from its historical and political entanglements may well be less objectionable, but also much less interesting in terms of the (ultimately philosophical) aporias they pose for his chosen discipline.

F. Gonzalez

The concept of this work is both unique and intriguing while the execution was boring and trite. I'm certain that persons more familiar with German literature and authors will take great offense at my brief analysis but I learned more about everyone else in Germany than I did about Marcel Reich-Raniki. The first half of the book did keep me interested but always wanting for more, more about him & his wife and a lot less about Max Frisch et al. I was also put-off by his constant references to himself and how important he was. He was lucky to survive the holocost, lucky to have such a position in Germany after the war, but should have left the writing to those whom he reviewed.

The most moving part of this book is its description of life in the Warsaw ghetto -- of how the Jews created a symphony orchestra and the Nazis' response to it, of the way that the Nazis chose which Jews were to be "resettled" and which would temporarily be allowed to live, and of Reich-Ranicki's and his wife's means of survival. I wish that Reich-Ranicki had been more introspective in the book, but one can't have everything -- it's a great book nonetheless.

Considering how little is translated and published here in the U.S. from the German, it is heartening that Marcel Reich-Ranicki's autobiography is among the chosen. It is a moving testimony of a life dislocated and reconstructed several times over, of a youth in Berlin, survival in the Warsaw Ghetto,life in post-War Poland, and a return to West Germany, where he rose to be the the most esteemed and, I suppose, also feared literary critic. His portrayal of the German literary scene from the sixties through the nineties by means of vignettes of its chief representatives is poignant and revealing. His assessment including that of his own role within it is likely to have provoked controversy.

Throughout the book emerges the self-portrait of a courageous,persevering, and also pained and sensitive man, who as a much-published author, radio and television personality seems to have been simultaneously at the center and at the margins of German cultural life for four decades.

I happened to be in the midst of reading the German version of the book when the events of September 11 threw our world out of kilter. Day after day I went back to Reich-Ranicki's "Mein Leben" with bated breath to escape from the present, not into an idyllic past, but to gain perspective on human suffering from a wise old man who describes his own lifelong anguish without sentimentality or moralizing. There may be other takes on his life story, but no one can deny his undying passion for the literature of the German language and his pursuit of it against all odds. To have an English translation to share with my friends is indeed something to write home about.

It is ironic, to say the least, that Reich-Ranicki, who was born in Poland, raised in Berlin, deported to Poland because of being a Jew, should be called "the Pope of German Letters." But then was he, whom the popes represent on Earth, not also a Jew? (with apologies to G.E.Lessing).

Mr. Kippenham has written a thoroughly enjoyable book! I've read a great many books on Cryptology, and while his book won't make you an expert, it gives descriptions and explanations superior to many other "beginner texts". In fact, the explanation of the mathematics involved in RSA encryption is the most lucid and easy to understand that I have yet read. Much of the book is a rehash of some other good crypto books like "Decrypted Secrets" and Beutelspacher's "Cryptology", but at least Kippenham puts it all together in an easy to understand style. For a more comprehensive history while still an enjoyable read, try Simon Singh's "The Code Book", the book that started me on my expensive journey of "collecting" crypto books, and if you're still interested, David Kahn's "The Codebreakers" is the holy grail of Crypto history, but a bit more dry. BEWARE. . .you may get hooked like me! Then the American Cryptogram's Classic Crypto Book Service or Aegean Park Press (both of whom specialize in Crypto books) will be "collecting" some of your money!

This is one of the best books on Cryptography that I have read. One of the best features of the book is the long detailed discussion about the "Enigma" machine of World War II. A lot of really suprising revelations about who REALLY broke that code system. How every encoding system works and how they are cracked are also discussed. Amazing how most code systems are very insecure. The book was great but a little dry to read, which I suspect has to do that it was translated from German. The examples are mostly English so it is easy and fun to read.

and finally a book that explains the detail in a clear, simple manner from Caesar's to credit cards. It's difficult to do this succinctly in few pages, but Rudy does it expertly. I highly recommend this small, interesting, cheap, and well-written book.

Albert Einstein led an interesting life, from his beginnings as a mathematical prodigy, to his heyday when he popularized physics, to his old age where his status as a living legend afforded him many opportunities. Folsing does a great job detailing Einstein the man in each of these sections. Generally he uses Einstein's own writings, either in letters or in papers, a technique that some find off-putting but I found useful and relevant.

Two things about this book, though, did trouble me. First, it was overlong. There were some sections that felt either redundant or padded, and did little to provide further insight into Einstein the man. Second, the physics explanations went over my head. As a layman, I wasn't expecting a dumbed-down approach meant to pander to the dimmest of readers. I do have some math background, and usually take to the subject easily. But Folsing never gave me a chance. I went in hoping for some comprehensible explanations regarding the special and general theories of relativity, but got nothing more than page after page of jargon that assumed plenty of prior knowledge. Even an explanation of why they (along with the equation "E=mc2") received critical and popular acclaim was missing.

Now, I'm willing to concede that something got lost in the translation, for the book was originally written in German. Folsing is by trade a physicist, and later a science journalist, so should know his stuff and have the skills needed for concise explanation. I suppose it was enough to ask that he attempt to share some of his knowledge of Einstein's science, while making Einstein's life a gripping and interesting tale.

This is the BEST biography of Einstein that I have read. The writing style is 'European' in that all dimensions of Einstein are explored and referenced. A strong point of this biography is the extensive research and documentation that backs up the text. Einstein's life in science AND out of it are explored thoroughly. My only quibble is that the quality of pictures in the text is shoddy. I have the Penguin edition. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. If you want a quick superficial biography try Banesh Hoffman's Einstein (still in print?). If you want a fairly good biography I recommend Denis Brian's Einstein. If you want a very precise and detail biography get this one and enjoy!

At the height of Einstein's career it was joked that only about a dozen people in the entire world actually understood the master's theory of relativity, which leads to the question of whether we mere mortals should even attempt this 882-page tome. The answer is a resounding yes. Albrecht Holsing never forgets that he is writing a biography, not a physics text. The result is a colorful biography of a learning disabled civil servant with perhaps the most fertile imagination in the history of science. Holsing's Einstein is a man without a country, an unabashed lover, an avowed pacifist, a born-again Zionist, bon vivant and alleged subversive. And yes, smart and eccentric as hell.

Between 1905 and 1920 Einstein, a patent claims inspector, produced a series of papers on the subject of physics so outlandish that the world collectively gasped. Put simply, Einstein postulated connections between dimensions that had been considered unbridgeable until his day. He was not a scientist in the way we traditionally think of the discipline. He was in reality a science fiction writer who challenged the white coats to prove he was wrong. Most of the time they could not, to their own amazement. And when they did, he seemed to delight even more. God, he remarked, may be mysterious, but never malevolent. For Einstein the universe was a playground.

Einstein enjoyed wonderful timing. By 1900 the telescope and the microscope had been perfected to the point that the bigness and the smallness of the natural world began crashing into the complacency of Newtonian physics and Euclidean geometry. Einstein, whose own spacial-temporal development was delayed until early adulthood, began to play with possibilities. Is the universe so big that the traditional absolute theorems of geometry might be disproved? Consider the classic geometric postulate that two parallel lines will stretch into infinity without ever touching. Einstein dared to question such a basic law in several ways: if the universe itself is not linear but perhaps curved, the lines would eventually meet. And second, what influence would gravitation play upon these two lines? It was these daring interplays of factors that set Einstein apart and led to his famous speculations about relationships between mass, time, and energy.

It is a credit to Holsing that he is able to describe Einstein's mental journeys as lucidly as he does. This is not to say there is no hard work required. Einstein had a hand in nearly all branches of physics, including optics, electricity, and radiation, and he was in constant dialogue with other noted thinkers of his age, including Niels Bohr and Max Planck. For an older reader unfamiliar with quantum physics, the scientific debates over the nature of light may as well be written in Vulcan. Be that as it may, the faithful reader will probably take away enough science to be dazzled and deeply impressed when Einstein's most audacious speculation-that light is bent by gravitational pull-is dramatically proven during a total eclipse of the sun in 1918.

For all practical purposes, Einstein's creative career ended around 1920, the same time he began to attract respectable university and lecture fees. The years between 1920 and 1955 are remarkable in their own way: Einstein became one of the world's most recognized celebrities in an era of renewed interest in popular science. Like many celebrities he grumbled about the distractions but rarely missed a good dinner. Universities that hired the grand thinker after 1920 did so at their own risk: Einstein traveled widely and allowed his life to be governed by the Muse of creativity. He spent three decades working unsuccessfully to eliminate mathematical kinks from his general theory of relativity. [Ironically, since 1995 astronomical discoveries of the magnitude of dust and gas in the universe have tended to smooth out the rough edges of the relativity theory.]

Although he lived and worked in Germany for many years, Einstein carried a deep-seated suspicion of German militarism. He was disillusioned with the conduct of most of his scientific colleagues during World War I, and he was early to see the direction of Nazi policy. Relocating to Princeton, New Jersey, he lived the final two decades of his life in the United States. As Folsing tells it, the United States government kept Einstein at arm's length, perhaps due to a 1930 speech in which he remarked that if as few as 2% of a nation's draftees refused to serve, its military force would crumble. The speech made Einstein an icon among pacifists, and "2%" buttons became popular leftist items throughout the 1930's. Given Einstein's political leanings, it is one of history's better fortunes that Franklin Roosevelt took seriously Einstein's warnings about German development of a fission bomb. However, Einstein was considered too much of a security risk to be considered for the Manhattan Project and was systematically excluded from any information about the project.

Folsing chronicles the struggles of Einstein's two marriages and the somewhat flagrant adulteries of his middle years. Contrary to popular belief, Einstein was in fact a handsome and captivating younger man. It was only in later years that hygiene and fashion tended to deteriorate, perhaps as a statement of sorts to his prim Princeton neighbors. Folsing captures Einstein's wit: once, when the mayor of his town apologized for sewerage fumes from a treatment plant wafting toward the Einstein residence, the good scientist confessed that on occasion he had "returned the compliment."