The Road to Relativity

"Any devotee of Einstein will relish the chance to parse this annotated facsimile of the physicist's original manuscript on general relativity... [Gutfreund and Renn's] cogent descriptions and the accompanying illustrations and documents open a fascinating window onto Einstein's otherwise inaccessible opus."--Scientific American "[Gutfreund and Renn] remind us of the charm a manuscript affords: rare glimpses into the working process of a great mind."--New Scientist "The Road to Relativity by Hanoch Gutfreund and Jurgen Renn reproduces the 45 handwritten--and hand-corrected--pages of Einstein's general theory, accompanied by extensive annotations on the science, its historical context and the implications for the future. The volume also includes a glossary of scientists and philosophers relevant to Einstein's work and some entertainingly lively illustrations--such as one of Einstein pouring coffee on a moving train to demonstrate that motion is relative--by Laurent Taudin."--Nancy Szokan, Washington Post "Gutfreund and Renn dissect every page of the manuscript, explaining the meaning of each passage and describing Einstein's thought processes leading up to it... The Road to Relativity is accessible and engaging."--Tom Siegfried, Science News "[A] wonderful book that combines a facsimile of Einstein's original manuscript, an English translation and a rich annotation."--Bill Condie, Cosmos Magazine

Hanoch Gutfreund is professor emeritus of theoretical physics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he is also the academic director of the Albert Einstein Archives. Jurgen Renn is a director at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin.

*Frontmatter, pg. i*CONTENTS, pg. vii*A Brief Note on the Publication of this Work, pg. xi*Foreword, pg. xiii*Preface, pg. xvii*The Charm of a Manuscript, pg. 1*Einstein's Intellectual Odyssey to General Relativity, pg. 7*The Annotated Manuscript, pg. 37*Notes on the Annotation Pages, pg. 141*Postscript: The Drama Continues ..., pg. 149*A Chronology of the Genesis of General Relativity and its Formative Years, pg. 159*Physicists, Mathematicians, and Philosophers Relevant to Einstein's Thinking, pg. 165*Further Reading, pg. 179*English Translation of "The Foundation of the General Theory of Relativity", pg. 183*English Translation of "Hamilton's Principle and the General Theory of Relativity", pg. 227*Index, pg. 233