He travels from his childhood in Rochester and four years at the Columbia Grammar School to his undergraduate and postgraduate years at Harvard, to two years at Princeton Institute for Advanced Study and thence onward to Paris where the book closes. It is a journey that brings Bernstein into contact and often friendship with some of the mid-2Oth century's leading physicists, among them Rabi, Lee and Yang, Murray GellMann and Julian Schwinger.
I imagine that nonphysicists will find the story charming and engaging. Bernstein comes across as a rather sensible and normal fellow who wandered into physics almost by accident when he took Harvard's required freshman course. This healthy individual likes to eat, drink and play tennis and has a red-blooded eye for the pretty girl. All of which would seem very ordinary except that Bernstein finds himself surrounded by a collection of eccentric geniuses who sleep during the day ...
