After World War I, America was a place transformed. A previously isolated, rather provincial nation content to perch on the sidelines of world events, it was suddenly thrust into a position of global power. During the postwar Roaring 20s, amid an economic boom and artistic revolution, two Europeans took little-remembered trips to America. For the first time, Albert Einstein and Marie Curie crossed the pond.
I learned of the scientists’ journeys while working on my book, The Soul of Genius: Marie Curie, Albert Einstein, and the Meeting That Changed the Course of Science. Although my book focuses on their 1911 meeting at the Solvay Conference, in Brussels, I found that their trips to America had tremendous ripple effects.
