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Einstein's Wife

Audiobook
Nonfiction: Biography
Unabridged   9.25 hour(s)
Publication date: 03/19/2019

Einstein's Wife

The Real Story of Mileva Einstein-Maric

Available from major retailers or BUY FROM AMAZON
Audio CD ISBN:9781684571765
Digital Download ISBN:9781684571772

Summary

Was Einstein's first wife his uncredited coauthor, unpaid assistant, or his unacknowledged helpmeet? The real “Mileva Story.”

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Product Description

Albert Einstein's first wife, Mileva Einstein-Maric, was forgotten for decades. When a trove of correspondence between them beginning in their student days was discovered in 1986, her story began to be told. Some of the tellers of the "Mileva Story" made startling claims: that she was a brilliant mathematician who surpassed her husband, and that she made uncredited contributions to his most celebrated papers in 1905, including his paper on special relativity.

Mileva was one of the few women of her era to pursue higher education in science; she and Einstein were students together at the Zurich Polytechnic. Mileva's ambitions for a science career, however, suffered a series of setbacks—failed diploma examinations, a disagreement with her doctoral dissertation adviser, an out-of-wedlock pregnancy by Einstein. She and Einstein married in 1903 and had two sons, but the marriage failed. Was Mileva her husband's uncredited coauthor, unpaid assistant, or his essential helpmeet? It's tempting to believe that she was her husband's secret collaborator, but the authors of Einstein's Wife look at the actual evidence, and a chapter by Ruth Lewin Sime offers important historical context. The story they tell is that of a brave and determined young woman who struggled against a variety of obstacles at a time when science was not very welcoming to women.

Reviews/Praise

"Einstein was, for his time, remarkably supportive of women scientists―Marie Curie, Emmy Noether, Lise Meitner, Marietta Blau―with, sadly, the exception of his first wife, Mileva Maric. This is her story, and theirs, told as truthfully as modern methods in history of science research can make it." ―Virginia L. Trimble, Professor of Physics & Astronomy, University of California Irvine

Author Bio

Allen Esterson was a Lecturer in Mathematics and Physics at Southwark College in London before his retirement. David C. Cassidy is a historian of science and professor emeritus at Hofstra University, Hempstead, New York.