The World As I See It (Abridged)

This is a collection of inconsistently-dated letters, speeches, and other communications by Einstein over a period spanning maybe 30 years. Largely goes into his feelings outside of science, on nationalism, pacifism, zionism, Jewish identity, minority vs. majority rights in nations, etc.

On the ideas themselves: certainly Einstein is one of the most accomplished scientific minds of all time. I wouldn't say his political or philosophical writings (at least here) are particularly exceptional -- they're somewhat well developed, but even-for-the-time mainstream. I disagree with a lot of his thoughts on ceding control to supra-national entities, his belief that independent nations are inherently bad, etc., but obviously agree with him show more (particularly with the benefit of history) about the dark trends brewing in the 20s and 30s, particularly in Europe and with respect to minority rights. If this book had been by a random person, though, it would be inconsequential.

On the other hand, as a book about Einstein's beliefs this is pretty horribly presented -- it's essentially random communications on various topics lacking context. Overall, unless you're deeply interested in reading randomly-selected Einstein writings, I'd skip it. show less

I thought it was boring. It seems like the sort of thing you'd be required to read in college as part of an ethics class, and in that capacity it would be fine because nobody expects to like class readings.

Albert Einstein was a man of such clarity of vision and a nearly prophetic sense of humanity. A much misunderstood genius.

Updated version of a classic book by Einstein..as he saw it.