Einstein A., Infeld L. The Evolution of Physics (Evolyutsiya fiziki), 1956. In Russian

Эйнштейн А., Инфельд Л.
Эволюция физики. Развитие идей от первоначальных понятий до теории относительности и квантов.
2-е издание.
Москва: Гостехтеориздат, 1956.
280 с.; твердый переплет, обычный формат.
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Einstein A., Infeld L.
The Evolution of Physics: The Development of Ideas from Primitive Concepts to the Theory of Relativity and Quantum Theory.
2nd edition.
Moscow: Gostekhteorizdat, 1956.
280 pp.; hardcover, standard format.

Albert Einstein (1879–1955), the greatest physicist of the 20th century, Nobel Prize winner (1921) and creator of the special and general theories of relativity, co-authored this popular science classic with Leopold Infeld (1898–1968), a Polish-Jewish physicist and his longtime collaborator at Princeton’s Institute for Advanced Study. Written in 1938 during Einstein’s American exile, the book was conceived as an accessible introduction to the history and conceptual development of physics for a broad audience, avoiding mathematics while preserving scientific rigor and philosophical depth.
The narrative traces the evolution of physical thought from ancient mechanical concepts through Galileo and Newton, to the crises of classical physics in the late 19th century, the birth of special relativity, quantum theory (Planck, Einstein’s light quanta, Bohr, Heisenberg), wave-particle duality, and the general theory of relativity. Einstein and Infeld use vivid analogies, thought experiments, and historical anecdotes to explain how revolutionary ideas emerged from paradoxes and experiments, emphasizing the role of imagination, simplicity, and the unity of nature.