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jackwwang's review against another edition
3.0
For the most part accessible to layman (to the physical sciences) as the letters mostly deal with politics, philosophy, and the personal lives of Born and Einstein. Towards the end some letters delve more into the physics where the debate over quantum mechanics became more contentions between the two scientists, I skipped these parts as they were Greek to me. It's fun to read about the lives and thoughts of these intellectual giants, they come out as very sagely and thoughtful individuals who are very much engaged in the world around them, much unlike the image of isolated scholars.
The lead-up to the Second World War reveals Born to be a realist and Einstein to be more of an optimist. Interestingly, this seems to flip after the war as Born becomes more amenable to forgiveness of Germany and moves back there, but Einstein becomes hardened in his opinion against his fatherland. I also found it remarkable that they seemed to maintain such an intimate friendship over the decades often with intervening years of no interaction and meeting outside of their written correspondence.
The lead-up to the Second World War reveals Born to be a realist and Einstein to be more of an optimist. Interestingly, this seems to flip after the war as Born becomes more amenable to forgiveness of Germany and moves back there, but Einstein becomes hardened in his opinion against his fatherland. I also found it remarkable that they seemed to maintain such an intimate friendship over the decades often with intervening years of no interaction and meeting outside of their written correspondence.
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