Einstein and Relativity: What Price Fame?

Abstract

ArgumentEinstein's initial fame came in late 1919 with a dramatic breakthrough in his general theory of relativity. Through a remarkable confluence of events and circumstances, the mass media soon projected an image of the photogenic physicist as a bold new revolutionary thinker. With his theory of relativity Einstein had overthrown outworn ideas about space and time dating back to Newton's day, no small feat. While downplaying his reputation as a revolutionary, Einstein proved he was well cast for the role of mild-mannered scientific genius. Yet fame demanded its price. Surrounded by social and economic unrest in Berlin, he was caught between two worlds, one struggling to be born, another refusing to die. Far from withdrawing, he threw himself into the political fray to become a symbol for international reconciliation during the early Weimar Republic. A decade later, his public image acquired another layer when he reemerged as a Stoic sage and selfless humanitarian, a quasi-religious figure who saw himself as a modern-day Spinoza. Focusing on events of this period and the role of the German media in portraying them, this essay highlights the scientific and political undercurrents that drew Einstein into the public eye at a critical juncture in European history. Its broader aim is to show the import of these themes within the context of the vast literature on Einstein as well as the larger historiography of science.

String theory, Einstein, and the identity of physics: Theory assessment in absence of the empirical

“…39 The literature on anti-relativists is substantial, see e.g. : Forman (1984); Schönbeck (2000); Rowe (2012);van Dongen (2007;; Wazeck (2013). 40 The following is based on van Dongen (2017); for a more straightforwardly historical-technical treatment of Einstein's work on unified field theory without the emphasis on virtue, see van Dongen (2010).…”

The Local versus the Global in the history of relativity: The case of Belgium

“…And scientific conservatives in Germany, such as Ernst Gehrcke and Philip Lenard, often felt threatened by cultural and political revolutions as well, which they understood as being part of the same revolutionary spirit haunting Western European society during the interwar period. In Weimar Germany, as in post-war Belgium and other Western European countries, politics and science became strongly intertwined (Rowe 2012). As Jeroen van Dongen has argued, "some of the most visible anti-relativists also feared marginalization of their social and political positions and conservative cultural values" ( van Dongen 2012, 167; see also van Dongen 2010).…”