Buy new:
-13% $22.70
FREE delivery Sunday, June 2 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Ships from: Amazon.com
Sold by: Amazon.com
$22.70 with 13 percent savings
List Price: $25.95

The List Price is the suggested retail price of a new product as provided by a manufacturer, supplier, or seller. Except for books, Amazon will display a List Price if the product was purchased by customers on Amazon or offered by other retailers at or above the List Price in at least the past 90 days. List prices may not necessarily reflect the product's prevailing market price.
Learn more
Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns
FREE delivery Sunday, June 2 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Or fastest delivery Wednesday, May 29. Order within 7 hrs 1 min
Only 15 left in stock (more on the way).
$$22.70 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$22.70
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Ships from
Amazon.com
Ships from
Amazon.com
Sold by
Amazon.com
Sold by
Amazon.com
Returns
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Read full return policy
Returns
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Read full return policy
Payment
Secure transaction
Your transaction is secure
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
Payment
Secure transaction
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
$12.50
Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns
FREE delivery Sunday, June 2 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Or fastest delivery Friday, May 31. Order within 6 hrs 1 min
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
$$22.70 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$22.70
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.
Added to

Sorry, there was a problem.

There was an error retrieving your Wish Lists. Please try again.

Sorry, there was a problem.

List unavailable.
$22.70 with 13 percent savings
List Price: $25.95

The List Price is the suggested retail price of a new product as provided by a manufacturer, supplier, or seller. Except for books, Amazon will display a List Price if the product was purchased by customers on Amazon or offered by other retailers at or above the List Price in at least the past 90 days. List prices may not necessarily reflect the product's prevailing market price.
Learn more
FREE pickup Sunday, June 2 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Or fastest pickup Friday, May 31. Order within 7 hrs 1 min

0.80 mi | San Francisco 94109

How pickup works
Pick up from nearby pickup location
Step 1: Place Your Order
Select the “Pickup” option on the product page or during checkout.
Step 2: Receive Notification
Once your package is ready for pickup, you'll receive an email and app notification.
Step 3: Pick up
Bring your order ID or pickup code (if applicable) to your chosen pickup location to pick up your package.
Only 15 left in stock (more on the way).
$$22.70 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$22.70
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Sold by
Amazon.com
Sold by
Amazon.com
Returns
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Read full return policy
Returns
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Read full return policy
Payment
Secure transaction
Your transaction is secure
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
Payment
Secure transaction
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the author

Peter Galison
Follow
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

Einstein's Clocks and Poincare's Maps: Empires of Time Paperback – Illustrated, September 17, 2004

by Peter Galison (Author)
4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 83 ratings
See all formats and editions
{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"$22.70","priceAmount":22.70,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"22","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"70","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"HAVSKXnD6bsTXBrVWcAoklt%2FAOHY0iEn9cImovm3E4p9nWiV8UC27xfpZNn0nGWpIo6GlcEgLGwEm9v%2BxNtJgz4769PIpbpkX2NuziF8lgs5CpgPqRHOOJI%2FWZ14YRmWK0311hV1kig%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}, {"displayPrice":"$12.50","priceAmount":12.50,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"12","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"50","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"HAVSKXnD6bsTXBrVWcAoklt%2FAOHY0iEnW1rQwrfwtyyLh52xQ2asWsGMY4QFKGLmKWd2dMK0Yos%2BzIzSEZzY2cT5POhXADaxedDwkbkTcugQ08l42oIuQGxbDgKb8%2F0GPMpU%2F%2FCf6%2BxgqPpIIJ0D22XbdXjSSwvDfA5wpQtThgWH%2Bk5PAXD8hg%3D%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"USED","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":1}],"desktop_buybox_group_2":[{"displayPrice":"$22.70","priceAmount":22.70,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"22","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"70","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"HAVSKXnD6bsTXBrVWcAoklt%2FAOHY0iEn9cImovm3E4p9nWiV8UC27xfpZNn0nGWpIo6GlcEgLGwEm9v%2BxNtJgz4769PIpbpkX2NuziF8lgs5CpgPqRHOOJI%2FWZ14YRmWK0311hV1kig%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"PICKUP","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":2}]}

Purchase options and add-ons

"More than a history of science; it is a tour de force in the genre." ―New York Times Book Review

A dramatic new account of the parallel quests to harness time that culminated in the revolutionary science of relativity, Einstein's Clocks, Poincaré's Maps is "part history, part science, part adventure, part biography, part meditation on the meaning of modernity....In Galison's telling of science, the meters and wires and epoxy and solder come alive as characters, along with physicists, engineers, technicians and others.…Galison has unearthed fascinating material" (New York Times).

Clocks and trains, telegraphs and colonial conquest: the challenges of the late nineteenth century were an indispensable real-world background to the enormous theoretical breakthrough of relativity. And two giants at the foundations of modern science were converging, step-by-step, on the answer: Albert Einstein, an young, obscure German physicist experimenting with measuring time using telegraph networks and with the coordination of clocks at train stations; and the renowned mathematician Henri Poincaré, president of the French Bureau of Longitude, mapping time coordinates across continents. Each found that to understand the newly global world, he had to determine whether there existed a pure time in which simultaneity was absolute or whether time was relative.

Esteemed historian of science Peter Galison has culled new information from rarely seen photographs, forgotten patents, and unexplored archives to tell the fascinating story of two scientists whose concrete, professional preoccupations engaged them in a silent race toward a theory that would conquer the empire of time.

Previous page
  1. Print length
    392 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    W. W. Norton & Company
  4. Publication date
    September 17, 2004
  5. Dimensions
    5.6 x 1.1 x 8.2 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0393326047
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0393326048
  8. See all details
Next page
The Amazon Book Review
The Amazon Book Review
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now.

Frequently bought together

Einstein's Clocks and Poincare's Maps: Empires of Time
$22.70
Get it as soon as Sunday, Jun 2
Only 15 left in stock (more on the way).
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
+
Image and Logic: A Material Culture of Microphysics
$69.56
Get it as soon as Sunday, Jun 2
Only 4 left in stock - order soon.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
+
Objectivity (Mit Press)
$19.49
Get it as soon as Sunday, Jun 2
In Stock
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
Total price:
To see our price, add these items to your cart.
Details
Added to Cart
spCSRF_Control
Some of these items ship sooner than the others.
Show details Hide details
Choose items to buy together.

Similar items that may deliver to you quickly

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1
Previous page
  1. Objectivity (Mit Press)
    Lorraine Daston
    4.7 out of 5 stars 76
    Paperback
    $19.49
    Get it as soon as Sunday, Jun 2
    FREE Shipping on orders over $35 shipped by Amazon
  2. The Order of Time
    Carlo Rovelli
    4.5 out of 5 stars 5,321
    Paperback
    $11.39
    Get it as soon as Sunday, Jun 2
    FREE Shipping on orders over $35 shipped by Amazon
  3. How Experiments End
    Peter Galison
    4.5 out of 5 stars 7
    Paperback
    $37.00
    Get it as soon as Sunday, Jun 2
    FREE Shipping by Amazon
  4. Image and Logic: A Material Culture of Microphysics
    Peter Louis Galison
    5.0 out of 5 stars 4
    Paperback
    $69.56
    Get it as soon as Sunday, Jun 2
    FREE Shipping by Amazon
    Only 4 left in stock - order soon.
  5. Quanta and Fields: The Biggest Ideas in the Universe
    Sean Carroll
    4.2 out of 5 stars 19
    Hardcover
    #1 Best Seller
      in Mathematical Physics
    $20.33
    Get it as soon as Sunday, Jun 2
    FREE Shipping on orders over $35 shipped by Amazon
  6. Quantum Entanglement (The MIT Press Essential Knowledge series)
    Jed Brody
    4.4 out of 5 stars 172
    Paperback
    $12.99
    Get it as soon as Sunday, Jun 2
    FREE Shipping on orders over $35 shipped by Amazon
Next page

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Galison provides a unique and enlightening view on the origin of time as we know it in the modern age."
― American Scientist

"An easy-reading but penetrating book. [Galison] brings the story of time to life as a story of wires and rails, precision maps, and imperial ambitions, as well as a story of physics and philosophy."
― Science

"This is how twentieth-century science really began....Engaging, original, and absolutely brilliant."
― James Gleick

About the Author

Peter Galison is the director of the Black Hole Initiative and the Joseph Pellegrino University Professor at Harvard University. He is a recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, the Max Planck Prize, and the Pfizer Prize. As a member of the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration, he shared in the 2020 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics for the capture of the first image of the supermassive black hole, M87.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ W. W. Norton & Company; Illustrated edition (September 17, 2004)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 392 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0393326047
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0393326048
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.6 x 1.1 x 8.2 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 83 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Peter Galison

Peter Galison

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

Customer reviews

4.1 out of 5 stars
4.1 out of 5
83 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

AR Grover
5.0 out of 5 stars ) I am still reading it and the people whom sold it to me did a great job. I would recommend the book for anyone ...
Reviewed in the United States on April 25, 2015
Verified Purchase
I am still reading it.. I kind of got lost at one point and well.. :) I am still reading it and the people whom sold it to me did a great job. I would recommend the book for anyone whom wants to attempt to understand more about how the brains of the last century worked.
One person found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Bruce Loveitt
4.0 out of 5 stars Clockwatchers
Reviewed in the United States on September 22, 2003
Verified Purchase
In this book, Peter Galison attempts to show that scientists and mathematicians, no matter how brilliant, do not work in a vacuum. The focus is more on Henri Poincare than Albert Einstein, although Einstein is certainly not slighted. It's just that Mr. Galison feels, at least as far as the general public is concerned, Poincare has been "slighted,"....and this book, in part, is an attempt to redress the situation. It is easy to think of mathematicians and physicists as being disconnected from the "real world." Mr. Galison wants to show us, however, that they are influenced heavily by their colleagues in the scientific community and, more generally, by the culture they are part of. Thus, Poincare (president of the French Bureau of Longitude) was a creature of his times: he was "formed" by his education at the Ecole Polytechnique, with its emphasis on combining theory with practice. He was a man who "networked," and constantly exchanged ideas with fellow mathematicians and scientists. As a Frenchman, he shared in the humiliation of the French defeat at the hands of the Prussians in the war of 1870. Thus, it was important for France to lead the way in the longitudinal mapping of the planet (which required the synchronization of clocks across great distances). This longitudinal mapping was important for war and peace (for moving armies and navies...and oceangoing commerce). Synchronized clocks, even apart from their relationship to longitude, were also important for other reasons- such as for regulating railroad schedules. Mr. Galison's point: time was in the air and, since the outlook was global, there was an understanding that time was relative rather than absolute. Mr. Galison is not trying to say that Poincare "invented" the Theory of Special Relativity. What he is trying to say is that the obsession with time was "in the ether." Einstein, in Switzerland, was not immune to these influences. Which brings us to, for me, anyway, the most interesting part of the book - the relationship between Einstein's work at the Bern patent office (both the specifics and the methodology). People were constantly trying to come up with better ways of synchronizing clocks, and Einstein saw many of these patent applications. Also, it was his job to evaluate patent applications. The patent application (amongst other things) has to show that you've come up with something original, and it also has to show clearly how the invention will work. Mr. Galison makes a convincing argument that Einstein's job, at the very least, kept him thinking about the synchronization (and, hence, the relativity) of time. Even more interesting, in his 1905 paper on Special Relativity, Einstein did not use footnotes or make references to other scientists. Mr. Galison speculates: was this arrogance on Einstein's part, or was he influenced by his work at the patent office? In other words, it wouldn't help your case if, in a patent application, you showed how your idea was based on other ideas. You needed to show you had come up with something new. Regarding patents and practicality, Einstein, in his 1905 paper, included "thought experiments" to show how his theory should function in the real world. Let me stress that Mr. Galison is not trying to downplay Einstein's brilliance. He is trying to show that everyone is affected by what is going on around them - no exceptions granted. Mr. Galison is also keen to show us the differences in the working methods of the two men. Einstein was a bit of a rebel - he enjoyed overturning the apple cart. Hence he was not reluctant to discard theories he had no use for. Poincare believed more in building on what came before him, and in reaching consensus. According to Mr. Galison, this makes Poincare appear conservative- but this isn't so. He was a brilliant man, but just not as radical as Einstein. To paraphrase an analogy the author uses, Pablo Picasso may not have been Jackson Pollock, but this didn't make Picasso conservative. One caveat concerning the book: it is certainly not for the beginner. Mr. Galison's explanations and diagrams are clear and concise. However, since I don't have much of a background in math, I found the sections on Poincare to be tough-sledding. I have previously done some reading on relativity, so I found the sections on Einstein to be a bit easier to get through. So, just be aware that the author is expecting that you have some familiarity with what he is talking about. That caveat aside, I wholeheartedly recommend this book.
72 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Brian
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on October 26, 2015
Verified Purchase
good read
Helpful
 Report
David Milliern
5.0 out of 5 stars A Very Different Look at Einstein
Reviewed in the United States on March 16, 2013
I am at a loss to explain all of the neutral and negative reviews this book has received. It is very easily one of the best books I have read in the past twelve months, and I read quite a lot. One reviewer asks what the book is about, and I find myself in complete shock. It's not as though the point isn't clear: Einstein was not the ethereal thinker (or as ethereal of a thinker) that modern media and scholarship paints him as. Galison builds a wonderful historical narrative that places Einstein in the gritty technological landscape of the late twentieth century, and adds detail to the physical in which Einstein conceived his ideas. Galison furthers his point by comparing and contrasting Einstein's context with that of Poincare, who had developed every but one piece of the puzzle special relativity. The work stands as, what I consider to be, exemplar of the high standards of HPS (History & Philosophy of Science) literature: it peers deeply into the science, presents a coherent (and an enjoyable) account of the times and goings-on, pays appropriate attention to philosophical influences which were so important to intellectual development of the science, and it is incredibly well-written. What's more, I think Galison has achieved a very, very difficult feat: he has made a book that bridges from an audience of scholarship, and is accessible to the reasonably intelligent layperson. The complaints about Galison's use of unfamiliar words can be simply defended by saying that Galison endeavors to employ precise language, insofar as he is capable. Besides, it makes for a more lively account; and being agitated by a bit of wordplay is just silly. If anything, reading this book from a popular audience standpoint, I want to read a book that is intelligently playful.

There is one major issue that potential readers may want to consider, and which has been complained about in other reviews, that Galison doesn't explain things below a particular level. Don't get this wrong, the book is by no means abstruse. However, Galison does assume a certain amount of knowledge about Einstein and the physics; but the physics is not so much that it cannot be grasped by someone who has read a basic work on special relativity. For example, reading Einstein's popular work, entitled "Relativity," or the special theory of relativity section of "Modern Physics" by Thornton and Rex, would give the reader sufficient background for the moderately technical information that is glossed over. For my part, not having read "Relativity" is like not having read "Romeo and Juliet," and I don't think such is too much to ask of anyone. It's a tougher read, but still geared toward a popular audience, and it is, after all, a watermark in human intellectual achievement, so I really can't empathize with the complaints. It is as though the general opinion is that every work of popular science must retell the same stories to pander the generally science-illiterate American audience, which I find an appalling, if true, opinion.

The one moderately decent criticism has been that Galison did not do enough to connect Einstein's thought to Poincare's, drawing the lines. I actually wrote a blog about this, for those interested (go to milliern_at_wordpress_dot_com and look for "Einstein, Poincare, and Kant: Between Galison and Yourgrau). To a certain extent, the criticism is valid, but Galison does a lot of writing to allow the active mind of the reader to draw many of the connections, which is not too much to ask. There are, I think, some things he needed to do better in explicitly drawing his lines, but, still, he has stimulated thought, so I see this as minor, on the whole. To counter the criticism with something that I really liked about the book, I think Poincare is overlooked far too much by historians of science and science history popularizers (except when it comes to math). One of the great minds of all times, Galison helps make visible this juggernaut who has been thoroughly overshadowed by Einstein.

This is a book I recommend to everyone who has read Walter Issacson's "Einstein" and Einstein's "Relativity," or have comparable experience with a biographical look at Einstein and pseudo-technical (popularized) knowledge of the physics.

(Spoiler Alert!: Don't read below this, if you don't want details about substance of the book.)

One last thing: For those who failed to see the point of the book, I want to let them in on the not-so-secretive secret. The idea of the title says it all, Galison's thinking being that what permitted Einstein to come up with his idea, even though Poincare had figured out how all but one of the puzzle pieces fit, was Einstein's practical mind and adherence to the practical (i.e. the clocks). By comparison, Galison is of the mind that Poincare's maps, being considerably more cerebral of a consideration, led Poincare away from solving the final conundrum that would have brought about a fully formed special theory of relativity. I disagree with this conclusion (see above-mentioned blog), even on the basis of the evidence presented by Galison.
21 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
David Grant
3.0 out of 5 stars Not exactly what I expected.
Reviewed in the United States on March 31, 2016
Verified Purchase
I was hoping for some insight into how Einstein's mind worked. There wasn't much of that. It did show how many of the predictions of the theory of relativity were already suggested by others; Einstein seems to have come up with a theory that stitched ideas all together as much as one that made new predictions. The history of how clocks are synchronized around the world, and the role of French scientists in the late nineteenth century was interesting.
One person found this helpful
Helpful
 Report

Top reviews from other countries

Translate all reviews to English
André Gargoura
1.0 out of 5 stars Nothing to write home about...!
Reviewed in France on January 23, 2020
Verified Purchase
It's really difficult to say anything positive about that book : Galison does not seem to be able to express his message(s) clearly and intelligibly ; let alone the reader who is rapidly confused and finally lost in the deluge of historical bla bla...
Report
Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in India on May 25, 2017
Verified Purchase
Very good
Report
Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 16, 2017
Verified Purchase
This is a good history of the evolution of time in the modern age
Report
Marc dM
2.0 out of 5 stars Teleurstellend
Reviewed in the Netherlands on September 24, 2016
Verified Purchase
Galison valt heel veel in herhaling en blijft m.n. heel lang stil staan bij allerlei vergaderingen en politieke discussies ten tijde van Poincaré, waardoor de essentie helemaal verloren gaat. Echte geschiedschrijving.
Diepgang ontbreekt volledig als het gaat om de wetenschappelijke betekenis van het begrip tijd en de "arrow of time" en wat beide geleerden hebben bijgedragen in deze discussie.
Report
arnold labrie
4.0 out of 5 stars In a good state
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 3, 2019
Verified Purchase
Delivery took a bit longer than expected. But all is good that ends well.
Report