A review by miguelf
The Last Man Who Knew Everything by David N. Schwartz

3.0

At the beginning of the book the author claims not to have a deep physics background, but it’s kind of inevitable that one will need to get into the science weeds in discussing one of the most well known physicists of the 20th century. Sure enough, it gets into detail at times, and I think the lack of a hard science background is to its detriment. Ironically, it seems like compared to someone like Dirac that Fermi lived a more interesting life, yet I recall being more engaged in the Dirac biography (The Strangest Man). It’s clear that the author is very excited about the life of Fermi, but the enthusiasm never really grabs the reader as much as it could. I did enjoy knowing more about Fermi and the people in his orbit as he is such a huge figure.