This volume brings together some of the best recent scholarship on
what might be termed Einstein's formative period, that is, the thirty
years before he obtained his first academic position in 1909.
Topics covered include Einstein's early reading and his university
education, his early views on scientific method and some of the
crucial philosophical influences shaping those views, his early work
on statistical mechanics, Brownian motion, quantum theory, relativity
theory, and his youthful vision of a unified foundation for physics.
Seven of the eight papers appear here in print for the first time.
The contributors draw extensively upon much of the interesting new
documentation, such as personal letters, including love letters to his
fiancee, and unpublished manuscripts, that has come to light in the
course of work on the first several volumes of {it The Collected
Papers of Albert Einstein}.
This engaging book examining the young Einstein from a variety of
perspectives---personal, scientific, historical, and philosophical---
will be accessible to a broad general readership.