Einstein on the Run: How Britain Saved the World's Greatest Scientist

Andrew Robinson

oct 2019 · Yale University Press

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A "highly readable" account of the role Britain played in Einstein's life—by inspiring his teenage passion for physics and providing refuge from the Nazis (The Wall Street Journal).

In late 1933, Albert Einstein found himself living alone in an isolated holiday hut in rural England. There, he toiled peacefully at mathematics, occasionally stepping out for walks or to play his violin. But how had Einstein come to abandon his Berlin home and go “on the run”?

This lively account tells the story of the world’s greatest scientist’s time in Britain for the first time, showing why the country was the perfect refuge for Einstein from rumored assassination plots by Nazi agents. Young Einstein’s passion for British physics, epitomized by Newton, had sparked his scientific development around 1900. British astronomers had confirmed his general theory of relativity, making him internationally famous in 1919. Welcomed by the British people, who helped him campaign against Nazi anti-Semitism, he even intended to become a British citizen. So why did Einstein then leave Britain, never to return to Europe?

“A vivid look at how the U.K. affected the German-born physicist’s life and thinking.” —Publishers Weekly

“A marvelous job of pulling new and interesting material out of the Einstein archives . . . I suspect that even readers who have devoured many books about Einstein and are already familiar with his interactions with the English . . . will find much to learn and enjoy.” —Metascience Journal

“Robinson has that rare knack for presenting a near-encyclopedic volume of historical information, anecdotes and contemporaneous accounts in a thoroughly delightful fashion.” —Physics World

Includes photographs and illustrations

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Andrew Robinson is the author of more than twenty-five books covering both science and the arts, six of which are biographies. They include The Last Man Who Knew Everything (a biography of polymath Thomas Young), Genius: A Very Short Introduction, and Einstein: A Hundred Years of Relativity, which was described by the astronomer and writer Patrick Moore as ""by far the best book about Einstein that I have ever come across"" in BBC Sky at Night. He is also a regular contributor to magazines and newspapers, including The Lancet, Nature, and Science.