PositiveScience...Einstein’s brief stint in Prague has been downplayed as a brief interlude of little significance by most biographers. Gordin sets out to challenge this view. An expert in the history of modern physical sciences and of Russian, European, and American history, he pulls together a wealth of information about the wider context of Einstein’s stay in Prague and of the cultural, scientific, and political history of Bohemia ... Gordin turns his account into an analysis of how key developments in 20th-century theoretical physics are intertwined with and play out in regional, cultural, and broader political history. But would Einstein’s biography or Prague’s history have looked much different if Einstein had not spent a year in Bohemia? ... I enjoyed reading this highly informative, profoundly researched, and well-written book but, in the end, was not convinced that Einstein’s time in Prague left any deeper traces beyond what one would expect ... Nonetheless, Gordin explores unknown connections and forgotten biographies with impressive scholarly meticulousness and fervor, tracing lines of development that follow a dynamic of their own. Even if they played only a minor role in the biography of the famous physicist, these details are interesting in their own right.
