Einstein: A Brief History of the Theory of Relativity

How Did the Theory of Relativity Come to Be?

This short booklet is based on Einstein's 1921 manuscript, "A Brief Outline of the Development of the Theory of Relativity" (in German).

This article was written by the request of the scientific journal, Nature, and it was published (translated into English) as the first article of the special issue dedicated to relativity, in February 1921. This special issue of Nature also included other papers by various experts in the field such as H.A. Lorentz, Sir Arthur Eddington, and Hermann Weyl, and Einstein's paper served as an introduction, providing a historical overview of the development of the theory of relativity.

If you are interested in learning how Einstein came up with the theory of relativity, then this short booklet (~10 pages) will be a great investment of your time.

A completely new English translation - 2024!

Note: This article, "A Brief Account of the Development of Relativity", by Einstein and the Translator's notes are also included in the book, "Einstein's Seven Essays on Relativity, Geometry, and Scientific Methods" (2025).