by Gerald Holton; Published by The Examiner Club
A personal autobiographical essay by Gerald Holton—Professor of Physics and History of Science, Emeritus at Harvard University—written at age 100 for the Examiners Club. Holton reflects on his childhood in Vienna and Berlin, his escape from Nazism via the Kindertransport, his family’s survival, and his later academic career. He frames his life as shaped by two intertwined forces: the “Celebratory Century” of scientific and cultural progress, and the “Tragic Century” of fascism, war, and genocide.