Einstein's breakthroughs in special and general relativity, cosmology, black holes, the principle of the expanding universe, quantum physics and unified scientific theory are some of the best-known discoveries of the previous century. But how these discoveries were linked to the findings of those who came before him - Galileo, Newton, Copernicus and Eddington, to name a few - is an aspect of this twentieth-century icon's life and work that, until now, remained largely unexplored. In addition to having stood on the shoulders of many scientific giants, Einstein also made significant errors of both a scientific and a personal nature. In this revisionist biography, Hans Ohanian takes a close and impartial look at the man who has become synonymous with the concept of genius itself. Ohanian looks beyond roughly hewn caricatures to give us a glimpse of the man on whom the legends are based.