Table Of ContentOUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,3/8/2016,SPi
EINSTEIN AND TWENTIETH-CENTURY POLITICS
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Einstein and
Twentieth-Century
Politics
‘ fl ’
A Salutary Moral In uence
RICHARD CROCKATT
1
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3
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This book is for Julia
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Acknowledgements
Thisprojectbeganwhen,duringanextendedstayinJerusalem,IfoundIwasliving
withinwalkingdistanceoftheAlbertEinsteinArchiveattheHebrewUniversityof
Jerusalem.AsahistorianofthecoldwarIhadlongbeeninterestedinthepoliticsof
the A-bomb and knew of Einstein’s part in alerting Franklin Roosevelt to the
possibilityofnuclearfission,whichledtotheManhattanProjectandultimatelyto
the bombs of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. My initial idea was simply to look at the
originalofEinstein’slettertoRooseveltandsomeofthesurroundingdocumenta-
tion.SoonIfoundmyselfstrayingintoneighbouringtopicsandintheendtothe
fullrangeofEinstein’spoliticalandsocialinterests.Therewasfarmoretodiscover
thanIhadimagined.WithoutthehelpofBarbaraWolff,theArchive’sInformation
Officer, this process would have been immeasurably more difficult and time-
consuming.BeyondhelpingmetofindmywayaroundtheArchive,sherepeatedly
encouraged,challenged,andcorrectedmeonmatterslargeandsmallwhenIfloated
ideas to her or showed her draft chapters. Whether she will be satisfied with
everything I have done is another matter. Whatever the case, my debt remains
large. As always in such situations, however, I take full responsibility for the end
result. Thanks are due also to Dr Roni Grosz, the Curator of the Archive, and to
ChayaBecker,hisassistant,whohelpedtomakemyvisitstotheArchiveapleasure
ratherthanachore.IamgratefulforpermissiontoquotefromtheArchive.
I owea special debtto Richard King,who read an early draftof Chapter1and
posedquestionsthatledmetoreconfigurethewholeproject.RogerThompsonwas
alsoinatthebeginning,readingsectionsandlisteningtomyupdatesoverregular
lunches.Hisencouragementhasbeenanessentialsupportthroughoutthefiveyears
ofresearchandwriting,ashasthatofmysonJohn,whoalsoreadandcommented
onmyearlyefforts.IamgratefultophysicistandphilosopherDavidAlbertforhis
reading of Chapter2 and to Lydia Goehr for putting me in touch with him.
Needless to say, none of the above can be held responsible for the uses I have
madeoftheirinvaluablehelp.
IoweadifferentkindofdebttoBoothamSchool,whereintheearly1960sIwas
exposedtotheQuakerethosofliberalinternationalism.Formethatethoswasmost
fully embodied in one particular teacher, John Kay, whose enthusiasm for the
French Enlightenment and the tradition that flowed from it has stayed with me.
ThathehadservedintheFriendsAmbulanceUnitintheFirstWorldWaroffered
atleastadistantlinkwiththewarthatEinsteinopposedwithsuchfervourandwas
theprimarycauseofhispoliticization.InreconstructingwhatinthisbookIcallthe
‘liberal international’ of the first half of the twentieth century, of which Einstein
wassuchaprominentmember,Iamdrawingheavilyonmyownliberaleducation
receivedoverfiftyyearsago.
I am grateful to anonymous readers at Oxford University Press for their
thoughtfulcomments.RobertFaberatOUPhasprovedanunfailinglysupportive
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viii Acknowledgements
editor,ashasCathrynSteele.Warmthanksarealsoduetotherestoftheeditorial
staffatOUPwhoworkedonthebook,especiallyHilaryWalford,whocopy-edited
thetextwithskillandpatience,andVaishnaviAnanthasubramanyamwhoexpertly
oversawthefinalstagesoftheproductionprocess.Ihavebeenstruckinwritingthis
book by the generosity of friends and family, who regularly sent me material on
Einsteinwhetherofascholarlytypeorfromthepressandothermediaduringthe
centenaryyearoftheGeneralTheoryofRelativity(2015).Itseemseveryonelikes
Einstein,illustratingoneofthethemesofthisbook,whichisthemagneticpower
oftheman,hisideas,andhisimage.PhilipFeldmandrewmyattentiontotheessay
onEinsteinbyC.P.Snow,andmybrotherPhilipalertedmetoanimportantitem
onEinsteinandFreud.Myfather,JohnCrockatt,sentwhatevercamehiswayon
EinsteinandsharedwithmehisexperienceoftacklingEinstein’sownbookonthe
theory of relativity. Barry Sheridan and Amira Katz-Goehr also supplied me with
referencestocurrentmaterialonEinstein.Ihavebenefitedgreatlyfromconversa-
tion with Del Hawley, whose understanding of mathematics and physics has
conveyed to me the excitement of Einstein’s world. My book is about Einstein’s
politics, but no one can spend this amount of time studying Einstein without
engagingatsomelevelwiththescience.CliveScotthelpedoutwithtranslationofa
passage in French. All family members not mentioned above, both Crockatts and
Goehrs,deservethanksfortheircontinualsupportandinterestintheproject.My
largest debt is to Julia, who pushed me at critical junctures to continue with the
book when I could not see a way forward and provided a sounding board for my
ideasaswellasmoralandothersupporteverystepoftheway.Forthis,asalways,
Iameternallygrateful.
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Contents
ListofIllustrations xi
Abbreviations xiii
Introduction 1
1. TheMakingofaGlobalPublicIntellectual 7
2. FoundationsofThought:Principles,Privacy,andPerformance 33
3. Pacifism 56
4. ZionismandIsrael 77
5. TheBombandtheArmsRace 107
6. WorldGovernment 133
7. FreedomandCold-WarPolitics 154
Conclusion 180
Notes 183
Bibliography 219
Index 229
