<< 1 >>
Rating: 
Summary: Surely you are joking !
Review: I am writing in response to the "zero star"review from from an unidentifiable source in Redondo Beach ,Ca. and some seconding chimpanzee in Sydney,Australia. Firstly , you are not "a physicist too" ! You can't even understand the mathematical representation of Feynman's science .Dr. Mehra is a physicist who has intimate first hand knowledge of all aspects of the history of quantum theory. Mr Redondo is probably confusing "physicist" with "physical therapist". A word of advice to Redondoman : Learn the Science;learn the value of details;learn the English language and when you lecture at Oxford "too" then you "too" will appreciate the specificity of carefully researched and personally corroborated biography [quite unlike the James Gleick general, sophomoric,second hand effort]. Redondoman you and the Sydney Chimp are "too" AWFUL to dignify further discussion . Dr. Mehra has produced a prodigious quantity and profound quality of work. Read it !
Rating: 
Summary: Complementary reading for Feynman "fans"
Review: I have read quite a number of biographical books of Richard Feynman, and Jagdish Mehra has done a good job I reckon. I am myself a great enthusiast of Feynman's way od thinking about science and other things, and this book provides one with bits and pieces that I can't recall I found in any of the other biographies (Gribbins, Gleick). I am not familiar with Ralph Leighton's books about Feynman, but Mehra's book is definitely a great one, specially the first parts which describe richard's childhood, elementary and high school, and college days. It really tells the story of the making of an outstanding scientist. I recommend it to those interested in learning more about the life and specially the work, mainly in QED, of such a great icon in physics.
Rating: 
Summary: An awful compendium
Review: I read this book about Feynman with great interest and I found it better than Gleick's book. Some people might not like the amount of detailed info about all sorts of Feynman trivia but how can a true fan of his not be delighted with all this great stuff! The technical parts are very thorough and detailed; it was well beyond anything you find in "popular" books like Gleick's. In that sense this is not really for general readers but there is enough interesting stuff for the interested layman too. I highly recommend this very thoroughly researched masterpiece!
Rating:
Summary: Great, but only for a certain audience
Review: Jagdish Mehra is, to be sure, not one of the great literary stylists, and his notion of historical writing is to throw in every available fact and save evaluation and historical analysis for a later date. Fair enough, I say: his is not the final word on Feynman, nor does he think so. Feynman's contribution to Quantum Electrodynamics is the central problem for any real biographer, and here Mehra is on stronger grounds. By its very nature, the book is steeped in math, and you will need to be up on calculus and Fourier expansions, not to mention the basic points of QED to read it with profit. It is good, solid history of science, but hardly a page-flipper for reading on the beach this summer.
Rating:
Summary: An awful compendium
Review: The book is already out of print, which indicates a collective
wisdom of the technical readership. As others (e.g., "zero
stars") have pointed out, this is a carelessly compiled
assortment of facts. And it is too bad, because Feynman
deserves a fine technical biography. And there do exist
excellent books on Feynman's life and work. Gleick's "Genius"
is a masterful personal biography (Gleick is a fine writer
for the technically literate: e.g., see his "Chaos").
Schweber's "QED and the men who made it" is an excellent
historical presentation of QED, in which of course Feynman
plays a major role. But Mehra's book fails in all aspects.
In particular, the technical parts are disorganized and
full of errors. I gave up half way through the book
in disgust.If you want to know about Feynman's life and personality, see
"Genius", along with Ralph Leighton's wonderful 2-volume
retelling of Feynman's stories and his "Tuva or Bust".
Also, see the 1990 memorial issue of Physics Today devoted to
his relationships with his colleagues. He was often
described as a "teacher's teacher." The 3 volume "Lectures"
demonstrate that well. Feynman's no-nonsense,
intuitive approach also comes out
in his monographs "Quantum Electrodynamics" and "Theory
of Fundamental Processes", which still give a fine
introduction to relativistic quantum mechanics.
But Feynman's technical work went well beyond
QED and the introduction of path integral methods. It was
so broad that few scientific biographers could have done
it justice. Pais didn't try. Schweber has covered Feynman's
early contributions well.
<< 1 >>
|
