The Einstein File
The FBI's Secret War Against the World's Most Famous Scientist
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Publisher Description
Einstein arrived in the United States in 1933, the year the Nazis rose to power in Germany. From that moment until he died in 1955, J. Edgar Hoover's FBI—with other agencies—feverishly collected "derogatory information" to undermine the renowned scientist's influence and destroy his reputation. With material accessed under the Freedom of Information Act, Fred Jerome reveals the depth of, and the reasons for, this massive anti-Einstein campaign. He also uncovers Einstein's strong political commitments that have been conveniently buried under the image of the absent-minded icon genius. Whereas Einstein said on several occasions, "My life is divided between equations and politics," Jerome delves into his little-known political half-life. Einstein, Hoover… Trump Jerome's preface to this new enriched edition of The Einstein File, traces the path of surveillance from J. Edgar Hoover, through McCarthyism, to the Trump era. The preface also presents new information gathered about the things that the FBI hated so much about Einstein: his very close friendship with Paul Robeson and their collaboration in fighting racism; and his studied position on Israel and Zionism that Israeli polticians do everything to hide.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Not only did J. Edgar Hoover keep a well-guarded (and sometimes comically erroneous) secret file on Albert Einstein, reveals Jerome, a journalist and consultant to Syracuse University's Newhouse School of Communications, he actively sought to have the physicist deported. Though Einstein was far too popular to be brought down by Hoover's normal smear tactics (even when covertly laundered through congressional committees), his file was filled with 1,800 pages of raw materials. But the lists of organizations he supported (antifascist, pacifist and antiracist) and "unsavory" people he knew, such as Paul Robeson, lacked bite, since Einstein (unlike his biographers) happily publicized these associations. Accusations of subversive activity ranged from the surreal (mind control and death rays) to carelessly recycled Nazi propaganda. Hoover's only hope lay in exposing Einstein as a Soviet spy, a task he fruitlessly pursued from 1950 to 1955 (when Einstein died). Einstein revealed as anything but politically na ve fought back against this chilling rerun of his experience in Germany 20 years earlier by calling for civil disobedience in resisting McCarthy and the House un-American Activities Committee, the most radical statement by any major figure at the time. Jerome suggests that popular history has been twisted by this encounter. If Hoover utterly failed to limit Einstein's political influence in his lifetime, Jerome argues, he helped depoliticize Einstein's image, reducing his impact on future generations, a process this book should help reverse. 16 pages of b&w photos not seen by PW.
