Albert Meets America

This volume of news articles from Einstein’s first trip to America explores his rise a public figure and the creation of his celebrity persona. When a British expedition confirmed Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity in 1919, the news catapulted the German physicist to global fame. Two years later, he joined a fund-raising tour through the United States—a country he’d never seen before—gathering support for the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His lectures in New York, Princeton, and Chicago, and comments on the Jewish presence in Palestine, made Einstein one of the first media stars. In Albert Meets America, József Illy presents a fascinating compilation of media stories written during Einstein’s trip that cover his science, his Zionism, and the anti-Semitism he encountered. Traveling with Einstein from headline to headline, readers experience his emotional connection with American Jews and his frustration at becoming world famous even though his theories were not truly understood. This collection gives readers an intimate glimpse into the life of one of the world’s first modern celebrities and a unique understanding of the media’s power over both its subject and its audience.