Celebrity Physicist: How the Press Sensationalized Einstein’s Search for a Unified Field Theory

Abstract

In Einstein’s later years, from the late 1920s onward, his reputation in the physics community as an innovator had faded as he pursued increasingly unrealistic unified field theories. Yet from the perspective of the press, his image and ideas were still marketable. We will see how his various attempts to craft a unified field theory generated numerous headlines, despite their lack of experimental evidence or even realistic solutions. We will examine how Einstein’s “latest theory,” became a much sought-after commodity used to generate interest in books, magazines, and newspapers.