Hawking Hawking: The Selling of a Scientific Celebrity
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- Create Date：2021-05-06 02:16:13
- Update Date：2025-09-23
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- Author：Charles Seife
- ISBN：1541618378
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Summary
In Hawking Hawking， science journalist Charles Seife explores how Stephen Hawking came to be thought of as humanity's greatest genius。 Hawking spent his career grappling with deep questions in physics， but his renown didn't rest on his science。 He was a master of self-promotion， hosting parties for time travelers， declaring victory over problems he had not solved， and wooing billionaires。 In a wheelchair and physically dependent on a cadre of devotees， Hawking still managed to captivate the people around him—and use them for his own purposes。
In this exposé and biography， Hawking Hawking uncovers the authentic Hawking buried underneath the fake。 It is the story of a man whose brilliance in physics was matched by his genius for building his own myth。
In this exposé and biography， Hawking Hawking uncovers the authentic Hawking buried underneath the fake。 It is the story of a man whose brilliance in physics was matched by his genius for building his own myth。
Reviews
James Gross
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The author is obviously jealous of hawking。 Hawking was a genius and should be seen in that light。 I did not appreciate how Seife ripped apart Hawking。
Federico Lucifredi
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A one-dimensional collection of tabloid-level reporting about Stephen Hawking with a single thing in common: being negative。 The author's theory is that Hawking was no genius， using the unattainable standard set by Einstein to measure against - a standard no one else in physics and perhaps all of science since Leonardo （who never published） has ever attained。 Written by a professor of journalism whose last four books were about deception and wishful thinking， the book attempts to debunk a belove A one-dimensional collection of tabloid-level reporting about Stephen Hawking with a single thing in common: being negative。 The author's theory is that Hawking was no genius， using the unattainable standard set by Einstein to measure against - a standard no one else in physics and perhaps all of science since Leonardo （who never published） has ever attained。 Written by a professor of journalism whose last four books were about deception and wishful thinking， the book attempts to debunk a beloved icon while maintaining plausible deniability about lack of respect for its subject — it is， after all， Hawking's fans who are expected to buy this tome。I simply hated it。 The title is single-minded in its negativity， to absurd levels。 With Hawking's pursuit of fame the central tenet of the adversarial thesis， one would expect that Hawking's most significant achievements pre-dating it， such as becoming the Lucasian professor （Newton's title at Cambridge） would stand out。 It ranks two disjoint paragraphs， how or why he became the Lucasian chair is glossed over in its entirety， receiving less attention in this book than Hawking's association with Richard Branson for the re-launch of Virgin Galactic。 Everything covered is framed with a negative spotlight， and sins of selective coverage are ever-present when no controversy can be attached to an episode — this is not a biography， it is an adversarial argument， with no charge being made other than being difficult， strong-minded and living a out hard life against all odds。 Sorry but not sorry: James Gleick's review of this book for the NY Review is shorter， fairer， and at three pages it delivers what one should know without charging you 380 pages worth of time for it。Nit-picking a dead man's life stories to make assumptions on the whole is no way to make a fair or convincing argument。 Adding one extra star because of the original （and convenient） plot device of narrating the man's life backwards。 。。。more
Katelyn Paul
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I thoroughly enjoyed this one。 I would have said that I knew a decent amount about Hawking before I read this but after reading it， it's clear to me that all I knew was the crafted public image。 It was beyond interesting to see the ways in which the "real" man was either actively hidden or buried away。 A bit of the science was slightly dense but Seife seemed to do the best job he could in conveying it in a way for any layman to better understand。 It was an objective look at a man who was both ha I thoroughly enjoyed this one。 I would have said that I knew a decent amount about Hawking before I read this but after reading it， it's clear to me that all I knew was the crafted public image。 It was beyond interesting to see the ways in which the "real" man was either actively hidden or buried away。 A bit of the science was slightly dense but Seife seemed to do the best job he could in conveying it in a way for any layman to better understand。 It was an objective look at a man who was both hated and loved and I thoroughly enjoyed it。 。。。more
Carolyn
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I received this book as an advance copy。 Thank youI enjoyed this book and find Stephen Hawking a fascinating person。 I will be quite honest though， there were many sections that I had to skim over simply because I don't have enough science background to truly appreciate some sections in the book。 For example: Here is one paragraph， "The geometric properties of Einsteinian， Lorentzian spacetime are very different from those of the ordinary， Euclidean space that we're used to。 The formula to measu I received this book as an advance copy。 Thank youI enjoyed this book and find Stephen Hawking a fascinating person。 I will be quite honest though， there were many sections that I had to skim over simply because I don't have enough science background to truly appreciate some sections in the book。 For example: Here is one paragraph， "The geometric properties of Einsteinian， Lorentzian spacetime are very different from those of the ordinary， Euclidean space that we're used to。 The formula to measure distance in spacetime （which I can't copy since my computer doesn't have the right keys） has a minus sign next to the time coordinate， t， and this means that the manifold of spacetime behaves in a way that defies ordinary geometric expectations。 This sign difference forces a departure from the ordinary， Euclidean geometry that we're used to; spacetime is not a manifold whose geometry is Euclidean， but Lorentzian instead。" Gulp， I was a liberal arts major way back when， and basic geometry was an issue for me， never mind Euclidean or Lorentzian！In fairness， there is an equal mix about his personal life and his professional life。 The personal aspects I found very interesting。 This book was also written in a very interesting way。 It started at the end of his life and worked back。 I decided I might have more luck understanding some of the science if I started when he was young and followed as he learned more， so I read the book backwards。 Admitting my ignorance， he probably outpaced my understanding of math and science shortly after toddlerhood， haha。 Nonetheless， I did enjoy it。 。。。more
Andrea Wenger
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Given that the subtitle of this book is "The Selling of a Scientific Celebrity，" I expected that to be the focus of this book。 In fact， that's just a small portion of it。 This is a long， thorough biography covering Hawking's life and work。 It's a fascinating tale， honest and compassionate， which leaves the reader with a fuller understanding of Hawking's science and his humanity。 I highly recommend it。 Thanks， NetGalley， for the ARC I received。 This is my honest and voluntary review。 Given that the subtitle of this book is "The Selling of a Scientific Celebrity，" I expected that to be the focus of this book。 In fact， that's just a small portion of it。 This is a long， thorough biography covering Hawking's life and work。 It's a fascinating tale， honest and compassionate， which leaves the reader with a fuller understanding of Hawking's science and his humanity。 I highly recommend it。 Thanks， NetGalley， for the ARC I received。 This is my honest and voluntary review。 。。。more
Livresque
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First of all ， Thank you ！ Netgally ， for providing this book。 Let me start with this， Steven Hawking is a scientific maverick in physics World。 Mind like his comes in to existence once in a century。 Being a Physics graduate， I was gravitated towards him from my early days。 After reading his Pop-Science books ， I became fascinated with his works。 Meanwhile in my study I became gradually articulated with mathematical skills。 Equipped with that ， I started reading his scientific papers and started First of all ， Thank you ！ Netgally ， for providing this book。 Let me start with this， Steven Hawking is a scientific maverick in physics World。 Mind like his comes in to existence once in a century。 Being a Physics graduate， I was gravitated towards him from my early days。 After reading his Pop-Science books ， I became fascinated with his works。 Meanwhile in my study I became gradually articulated with mathematical skills。 Equipped with that ， I started reading his scientific papers and started discussing them with my professors who were actually internationally renowned theoretical physicists 。 Even with my limited knowledge 。 I was simply blown away by the sheer brilliance of his ideas。 Few months ago， when I saw this book ， I was curious 。 It says it's supposed to be a big expose on Hawking's life。 I have always known Hawking was a bit of attention hungry person。 In a world of Kardashians and Instagram or Tic Toc influencers ，his attention seeking attitude was nothing。 Then when I started read this book ， it started making ridiculous and infuriating assumptions by nit-picking his life stories 。 Just after 20 pages， it first claims ， Hawking has made his life not by his virtues but by performing various media circus， it goes so far to say that projecting himself successfully to media is his actual achievement and trajectory in life。 After some times， the author contradicts himself by saying " Hawking wanted to become famous for his physics ， not for his personality。。。" The whole book is filled with such perplexing notion which was simply ludicrous to me。 Secondly， how do I know the author understands Gravitational cosmology enough to comment on Hawking's （Singularity ， Black Hole etc。 ） works when he writes sentence like "The Feynman path integral method works in a manifold that has a Euclidian geometry。。。 " 。 It's not only flawed but incoherent。 When he writes about Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity ， it becomes evident that he doesn't even understand how length contraction or time dilation works。 Any reader from non science background would be completely misled by his opaque and sometimes flawed explanations。 I can't even imagine the Author of zero would do such a sloppy work！So in Conclusion， for me ， reading this book was the most unproductive thing I did in this week。 If you want some juicy tabloid piece about Hawking， you may read this， if you want a analytical view about Hawking's Work， this book is not for you。 。。。more
Keylime
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Hawking Hawking provides a fascinating and multi-faceted portrayal of one of the legends of our time。 As one who grew up in the 90'/00's with a love of STEM， Stephen Hawking seemed like an exiled king， a man of prestige and influence but who was lacking a kingdom to rule。 I knew of his contributions to black hole theories decades before I was born， and I had （and read） The Brief History of Time， but beyond that I didn't really know who he was beyond the iconic pictures of him in a wheelchair or Hawking Hawking provides a fascinating and multi-faceted portrayal of one of the legends of our time。 As one who grew up in the 90'/00's with a love of STEM， Stephen Hawking seemed like an exiled king， a man of prestige and influence but who was lacking a kingdom to rule。 I knew of his contributions to black hole theories decades before I was born， and I had （and read） The Brief History of Time， but beyond that I didn't really know who he was beyond the iconic pictures of him in a wheelchair or soundbites of his 'voice'。Going into this book， I was a little worried based on the title （with the negative connotations of the word 'hawking'） that Selfe would take a more argumentative or hostile perspective in his biography to tear down this icon of science， but as I read further， that did not appear to be the case。 While the implied thesis of the title （the highly likely self-celebritization of Hawking） does certainly factor throughout the book， I thought Selfe did an admirable job giving Hawking and everyone who featured in the book a fair shake， even providing multiple accounts at times where differing perspectives yielded different recollections of history。 I am particularly impressed given the author's note at the end regarding the difficulty there exists to glean any personal history of the author from archived sources as the book as a whole felt very solidly researched and substantiated。 In addition to covering Hawking the person， Selfe proves himself a good communicator of science， managing to take the rather mindbending content of Hawking and others' works （fundamental physics， black holes， LIGO， etc。） and break it down into easy to digest pieces that I expect would make this heady science understandable by most who may pick up this book。 Contentwise， I would give this book a full 5-stars。Where the book was a bit lacking for me was the structure。 While I do give props to Selfe for taking a risk and structuring the book itself in homage to Hawking's reversal of the arrow of time hypothesis by starting at the end of Hawking's life and moving backwards in time， this led to particular problems in the later half of the book as the human brain does not think/process backwards as well， something Selfe accounts for in his writing。 The two biggest problems I noted that emerged from this conflict were repetition and confusion of the material。 If one wants to describe an event "C" in a person's life， one may have to explain earlier related events "B" and perhaps "A" for proper context。 When written chronologically， there is no problem。 However， in this book， you would read ABC， then AB， then A， Additionally， if ABC is the evolution of a scientific theory， it can become rather confusing when one emerges from the book which theories were proven right or wrong as information is lost as you work backwards。 Because of both of these problems， the second half of the book drags at times and proves a frustrating read at others despite the good and interesting information provided in each chapter。 Every chapter by itself was very well written， but as a whole， I do think the book suffers， requiring a much greater page count （due to the repetition） and readers' energy as they untangle the 'new' old developments from the recent new developments in both science and personal relationships。 In the end， I think he could have both paid tribute and written a better book by writing the book normally then having it printed backwards， even if I had to hold a mirror to the book to read it all the while。Overall， I found this an excellent read full of interesting anecdotes that humanizes a mythological figure though the structure may prove frustrating to some。 I do expect that having read this work， I will be reading other books by Selfe in the near future。 Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me access to this ARC in exchange for an honest review。 。。。more
Patrick Pilz
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Charles Seife looks at Hawking， as Hawking looked at the Universe - backward in time。 A homage to Hawking and his phD thesis。 At times critical of his contributions to science or his general attitude to people in life makes this a biography worthwhile reading。 Of course， similar like Isaacson's biography on Einstein， expect to be overwhelmed with some of the theoretical physics in the book。 Total forgiveness to the author on that one， as you cannot tell Hawking's story without it。 It is neither Charles Seife looks at Hawking， as Hawking looked at the Universe - backward in time。 A homage to Hawking and his phD thesis。 At times critical of his contributions to science or his general attitude to people in life makes this a biography worthwhile reading。 Of course， similar like Isaacson's biography on Einstein， expect to be overwhelmed with some of the theoretical physics in the book。 Total forgiveness to the author on that one， as you cannot tell Hawking's story without it。 It is neither Einstein's， Hawking's or Seife's fault that it just is so complicated。While I understand Charles choice to tell the story backwards， ending in Hawking's biological singularity， it does not help comprehension of the story。 Artistically pleasing is not what I am seeking in non-fiction writing。 As one progresses in the book， you feel that the next chapter is sort of a flashback to the previous chapter， which connects at the end of each chapter to the ending of the previous one。 Telling the story linear would have made the book easier to read， some aspects are difficult enough already。 One star deduction for this， for an otherwise great read and a great conclusion to the life of the greatest physicist of the 2nd half of the 20th century。 。。。more
Bonnye Reed
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