Why I Left Canada: Reflections on Science and Politics

Leopold Infeld

ISBN 10: 0773502726 / ISBN 13: 9780773502727

Published by McGill-Queen's University Press, 1978

About this Item

Translated by Helen Infeld. Edited with Introduction and Notes by Lewis Pyenson. Hardcover, xii + 212 pages, b&w photos in text. Ex-university library, stamped "withdrawn"; with internal ownership and inventory markings. Contents are clean, untanned, with unmarked text. A couple of straightened corner folds. Faint marks on the outer page edges. Boards show grubby handling marks (with a darker stain on the front panel), abrasions, short creases to corners. Two external library stickers. No dust jacket. -- Leopold Infeld (1898-1968) is best known for his collaboration with Albert Einstein in the 1930s on the general theory of relativity, resulting in both groundbreaking research on the problem of motion and their jointly authored popular science classic The Evolution of Physics (1938). This posthumously published memoir, translated from the Polish, addresses a less celebrated but no less significant chapter of his life: his decision in 1950 to leave his professorship at the University of Toronto and return to communist Poland. The book offers Infeld's own account of the forces that drove that decision. After the first use of nuclear weapons in 1945, he became, like Einstein, a committed peace activist, which led to accusations of communist sympathies during the early years of the Cold War. Infeld frames his departure not as ideological conversion but as a response to political hostility in Canada and a sense of obligation to help rebuild Polish science after the devastation of the Second World War. The volume contains dedicated sections on his teacher Wladyslaw Natanson and on his celebrated colleagues such as Einstein, Niels Bohr, J. Robert Oppenheimer and Max Planck, providing both portraits of his peers and introspection regarding his own actions. Implicit comparisons of science in communist and non-communist countries, presented in Infeld's highly readable, anecdotal fashion, make this book far more than a story of the personal trials of one man. The volume offers a rare insider perspective on the politics of science during the Cold War, written by someone who had lived on both sides of the ideological divide and whose career, spent in pre-war Poland, wartime Canada, and post-war Warsaw, placed him at the intersection of some of the most consequential scientific and political events of the 20th century. This memoir remains a valuable historical account of the political climate surrounding science in the late 1940s and the choices forced upon intellectuals navigating Cold War allegiances. It speaks directly to recurring questions about the relationship between scientific freedom, political loyalty and national obligation - questions that have lost none of their relevance in an era of renewed geopolitical tension and debate over the politicisation of research.

Seller Inventory # 013293

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Why I Left Canada: Reflections on Science and Politics
• Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press
• Publication Date: 1978
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0773502726
• ISBN 13: 9780773502727
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: No Jacket

About this title

Synopsis

Best known for his collaboration with Einstein in the 1930s on the nature of motion in the general theory of relativity, and for their Evolution of Physics (1938), in the present volume Infeld continues his autobiographical account from the point he left it in his highly acclaimed Quest (1941). The title is taken from one of the several essays in the book which is of considerable historical interest. In it Infeld describes his life as a professor of applied mathematics at the University of Toronto (1938-1950), and the transition to his native Poland. Because of his outspoken opposition to nuclear weapons (of which the West then had a monopoly), he was attacked by various sectors of the Canadian press, parliament, and self-appointed hate mongers. It was argued that if he were allowed to accept an invitation to visit the communist Poland, he would carry with him the secret of the atomic bomb, which he had learned from Einstein. The fact that neither had access to information about the bomb's construction was ignored. Infeld went abroad, nevertheless, and was sufficiently inspired by the efforts to rebuild the country, with generous support for science, that he agreed to return permanently. A strong sense that he must do his share to create a school of theoretical physics in Poland marked this final stage of Infeld's career. Throughout the volume, which includes articles on his teacher Natanson, and on Einstein, Bohr, Oppenheimer, Planck, and others, Infeld displays his perception of the psychology of fellow scientists as well as introspection regarding his own actions. He clearly is a man disposed to think his own thoughts, who rebelled against the slavish deference given to scientific work in the Soviet Union and criticism of Western research as "idealist." Implicit comparisons of science in communist and noncommunist countries, presented in Infeld's highly readable, anecdotal fashion, make this volume far more than a story of the personal trials of one man.

Language Notes

Text: English, Polish (translation)