Yiddishe Springtime: Einstein Enters U.S. Popular Culture, 1919-24

by

Aaron Stratton Lecklider

Primary Advisor: Rachel Rubin

Secondary Advisor: Judith Smith

Abstract:

Since 1919, Einstein has been a famous figure in America. Today, eighty years later and fifty years after his death, his name continues to hold a certain prominence in American culture, certainly far greater than any other twentieth-century physicists. How and why did this come about? This project traces the cultural history of Albert Einstein in American media representations between 1919-24 to uncover the ideological forces constructing Einstein as a major figure in popular culture.

In this project, Lecklider examines early representations of Albert Einstein through a sustained investigation of articles in the New York Times, New Republic, Independent, and other wide-circulation news periodicals. Lecklider studies the ideological currents informing early reportage on relativity theory, taking special notice of the point at which coverage of the theory gave way to coverage of Einstein himself.

The earliest news reports on relativity, while written in an objective style, made liberal use of many cultural contingencies specific to their time period: a generalized anti-German sentiment, complex assumptions about America's democratic dientity, contradictory assumptions about Jews in the U.S. and Europe. Later coverage fawned over Einstein as though it were only natural. The project examines the critical shift in consciousness that made this strange progression seem conventional , and proposed that Einstein's suppuration in American culture was reliant upon a wide array of historical forces, many of them overlooked in a strictly "history of science" approach.