Albert Einstein published Relativity: The Special and General Theory in 1916, writing it explicitly for "those readers who are not conversant with the mathematical apparatus of theoretical physics", that is, for educated general readers rather than physicists. The book develops first the special theory of relativity (1905), which addresses the relationship between measurements made by observers moving at constant velocities relative to each other, and then the general theory (1915), which extends the analysis to accelerating frames of reference and provides a geometric account of gravity as the curvature of spacetime. Einstein's informal presentation uses thought experiments, the train moving past a railway embankment, the elevator in free fall, rather than formal mathematics to communicate the core ideas.
The special theory's most disorienting conclusion is the relativity of simultaneity: two events that are simultaneous for one observer are not necessarily simultaneous for an observer moving at a different velocity. The constancy of the speed of light, which is the theory's empirical foundation, requires this conclusion as a mathematical consequence. The general theory's replacement of Newtonian gravity with spacetime curvature was confirmed dramatically by the 1919 solar eclipse observations that showed starlight bending around the sun exactly as general relativity predicted. Einstein became internationally famous after the eclipse results were published, the New York Times ran the headline "Lights All Askew in the Heavens."
Reading Einstein's own account of relativity theory, rather than a secondary popularization, gives access to the specific way he thought through the problems, the particular thought experiments he used, the specific objections he considered, the reasoning process that produced counterintuitive conclusions from empirically established premises. The mathematical portions require calculus and some familiarity with tensor notation to follow fully, but the qualitative arguments are accessible without them and reward attention. The book is short enough to read in a weekend and rewarding enough to justify the effort even for readers who cannot follow the formal mathematics.
Darwin delayed publishing On the Origin of Species for 20 years, fearing controversy. He published only when Wallace independently developed the same theory.
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