Free Creations of the Human Mind: The Universes of Albert Einstein, a succinct account of the life and contributions of Einstein, was unveiled on May 1, 2025, by Oxford University Press. Penned by two experts immersed in the Einstein archives—Diana Kormos-Buchwald, the director and general editor of the Einstein Papers Project at Caltech, and Michael Gordin, a professor of history and dean of the college at Princeton University—Free Creations of the Human Mind tackles at least two notable challenges: narrating Einstein’s journey as a physicist, political activist, and worldly traveler in 35,000 words or less; and distinguishing the legend of Einstein from what the archives reveal about his inner world and external views of the individual.
Kormos-Buchwald, who also holds the title of Robert M. Abbey Professor of History at Caltech, mentions her collaboration with Gordin to condense The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein, currently comprising 17 volumes with more on the horizon, into an engaging introduction to Einstein. “Professor Gordin authored a significant book about Einstein’s formative years in Prague some time ago, and, naturally, I’ve been involved with Einstein-related projects for 25 years now,” Kormos-Buchwald states. “Crafting a concise book is far more challenging than producing a lengthy one. We both possessed abundant material for a range of extensive books, but refining these, honing the narrative, and rendering it accessible to a wider audience demanded our joint effort.”
Gordin mirrors this viewpoint: “Einstein is prone to extensive tomes. We aimed to narrate his life as a tale, yet we did not wish to reiterate all the narratives that are commonly assumed. Some of those tales hold truth, and can be found elsewhere. Yet, several accounts are apocryphal or distorted. We intended to utilize the ‘ripped from the archives’ quality of recent discoveries and newly edited materials in the archive, as well as focus on several topics we aimed to address.”
Kormos-Buchwald and Gordin collaborated meticulously to shape the book. “Some chapters I drafted initially; others he drafted first. We exchanged feedback constantly,” Gordin observes. “There are specific sentences in the book where I can identify who authored which part, but many I cannot.”
Throughout, the duo was dedicated to grounding their narrative in primary sources. “We did not accept any unsubstantiated claims lightly. An abundance of mythology has accumulated around Einstein. Numerous historians, philosophers, and scientists have constructed interpretations of his work and life. We could have crafted a summary of existing scholarship, but we aimed to pursue a distinct path,” Gordin articulates. “We had to make decisions regarding what we deemed significant to Einstein himself, what is crucial for contemporary readers to know, and what we can genuinely document and substantiate.”
Kormos-Buchwald agrees: “Previous scholarship on Einstein has faced criticism for being overly reverent. There was a phase focusing on ‘great man’ narratives about Einstein, which was subsequently followed by works striving to illustrate that Einstein had flaws. We aimed to document a balanced perspective, not merely to achieve harmony, but to remain faithful to what we genuinely know about his life.”
This methodology produced a biography that offers fresh perspectives on Einstein’s scientific endeavors, his public stances on pacifism and Zionism, as well as the details of his everyday life. One aspect Gordin and Kormos-Buchwald emphasize pertains to Einstein’s involvement in quantum mechanics, which they argue is frequently misunderstood or misrepresented. Einstein is often depicted as engaging in a prolonged discourse with Danish physicist Niels Bohr regarding the essence of quantum mechanics. However, as Gordin and Kormos-Buchwald express, “There wasn’t genuinely a ‘debate’ between Einstein and Bohr until Bohr fabricated it and then prematurely proclaimed himself the victor. … The contributions of [later] physicists have not resolved all the philosophical questions raised by Einstein and others regarding quantum mechanics; for instance, discussions concerning the puzzling relationships between general relativity and quantum mechanics persist today.”
Following a brief historical overview, the chapters of Free Creations of the Human Mind center on Einstein’s research into the theory of relativity (which he initially referred to as the theory of invariance), quantum mechanics, his Jewish identity and the destiny of the Jewish people, his anti-war stance, and his philosophy regarding science. Throughout, Gordin and Kormos-Buchwald redirect readers to Einstein’s everyday existence, much of which is known through his extensive letters. Einstein regularly penned as many as a dozen letters daily. “For his entire life,” Gordin remarks, “Einstein maintained a household with numerous dependents—wife, stepdaughters, sister, secretary—which required him to be cautious about his finances. People act as though this man didn’t need to contemplate those matters, but he had to pay his taxes like everyone else. He also encountered several severe health issues which disrupted his work and altered his lifestyle. When you align these aspects with the entirety of his biography, both scientific and personal, they are quite enlightening. People tend to regard Einstein as merely an abstract intellect, and they often overlook the significance of these matters.”
Throughout his lifetime, Einstein “experienced phases of intense activity and other times that were less fervent,” Kormos-Buchwald notes. “These periods of great productivity were not confined solely to science or politics, but encompassed both.” Gordin reflects that “people wish to believe that somehow engaging in science excludes other endeavors; however, during his dynamic periods, science, politics, and all other pursuits were simply integrated aspects of his life.”
Gordin and Kormos-Buchwald demonstrate that Einstein sought to convey his scientific concepts to a broader audience from the onset of his career. “Ezstein’s first so-called accessible book on the special and general theory of relativity was penned almost immediately after he completed his papers on general relativity,” Kormos-Buchwald shares. “The book was published in 1917, one year after he finalized his theory of general relativity in 1916. At that time, this book resonated primarily in German-speaking nations due to the wartime tensions. What’s notable is that the book, which he believed to be generally comprehensible, was fairly technical.”
In later years, Einstein grasped how challenging it is for genuinely curious individuals to grasp new scientific advancements. Post-1917, he made a concerted effort to write more concise essays and eventually centered his focus on two topics he learned to articulate exceptionally well, namely space and time. His public lectures clarified our traditional understandings of space and time and how relativity reshapes these concepts.
Along with his peers, Einstein pondered deeply about what we could know regarding the universe and the methods of acquiring that knowledge. The title phrase, “free creations of the human mind,” was Einstein’s, meant to express his belief that scientific theories are expressions of human creativity that can subsequently be tested against observations and measurements. “For Einstein, the world is not a mere construct, and it is not relative,” Kormos-Buchwald asserts.
“If a tree falls in a forest when no one is there to hear it, does it produce a sound? Einstein’s response would be affirmative,” Gordin states. “The tree indeed generates sound even if we aren’t present to perceive it, and the moon exists regardless of whether you are observing it.”