Editing Albert Einstein (section)

=== Coming to terms with fame (1921–1923)===
[[File:Albert Einstein (Nobel).png|thumb|upright|left|Einstein's official portrait after receiving the 1921 [[Nobel Prize]] for Physics]]
With Eddington's eclipse observations widely reported not just in academic journals but by the popular press as well, Einstein became {{qi|perhaps the world's first celebrity scientist}}, a genius who had shattered a paradigm that had been basic to physicists' understanding of the universe since the seventeenth century.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/how-celebrity-scientist-albert-einstein-used-fame-denounce-american-racism-180962356/|last=Francis|first=Matthew|title=How Albert Einstein Used His Fame to Denounce American Racism|date=3 March 2017|publisher=Smithsonian Magazine}}</ref>

Einstein began his new life as an intellectual icon in America, where he arrived on 2 April 1921. He was welcomed to New York City by Mayor [[John Francis Hylan]], and then spent three weeks giving lectures and attending receptions.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Falk |first=Dan |date=2021-04-02 |title=One Hundred Years Ago, Einstein Was Given a Hero's Welcome by America's Jews |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/one-hundred-years-ago-einstein-was-given-heros-welcome-americas-jews-180977386/ |access-date=2025-03-14 |magazine=[[Smithsonian Magazine]]}}</ref> He spoke several times at [[Columbia University]] and [[Princeton]], and in Washington, he visited the [[White House]] with representatives of the [[National Academy of Sciences]]. He returned to Europe via London, where he was the guest of the philosopher and statesman [[Viscount Haldane]]. He used his time in the British capital to meet several people prominent in British scientific, political or intellectual life, and to deliver a lecture at [[King's College London|King's College]].{{Sfnp|Hoffmann|1972|pp=145–148}}{{Sfnp|Fölsing|1997|pp=499–508}} In July 1921, he published an essay, "My First Impression of the U.S.A.", in which he sought to sketch the American character, much as had [[Alexis de Tocqueville]] in ''[[Democracy in America]]'' (1835).<ref name="7gwHd"/> He wrote of his transatlantic hosts in highly approving terms: {{qi|What strikes a visitor is the joyous, positive attitude to life ... The American is friendly, self-confident, optimistic, and without envy.}}{{sfnp|Holton|1984|p=20}}

In 1922, Einstein's travels were to the old world rather than the new. He devoted six months to a tour of Asia that saw him speaking in Japan, Singapore and Sri Lanka (then known as [[Ceylon]]). After his first public lecture in Tokyo, he met [[Emperor Yoshihito]] and his wife at the [[Tokyo Imperial Palace|Imperial Palace]], with thousands of spectators thronging the streets in the hope of catching a glimpse of him. (In a letter to his sons, he wrote that Japanese people seemed to him to be generally modest, intelligent and considerate, and to have a true appreciation of art.{{sfnp|Isaacson|2007|p= 307–308}} But his picture of them in his diary was less flattering: {{qi|[the] intellectual needs of this nation seem to be weaker than their artistic ones – natural disposition?}} His journal also contains views of China and India which were uncomplimentary. Of Chinese people, he wrote that {{qi|even the children are spiritless and look obtuse... It would be a pity if these Chinese supplant all other races. For the likes of us the mere thought is unspeakably dreary}}.<ref name="38YkY"/><ref>{{Cite web|last=Katz|first=Brigit|title=Einstein's Travel Diaries Reveal His Deeply Troubling Views on Race|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/einsteins-travel-diaries-reveal-his-deeply-troubling-views-race-180969387/|access-date=3 January 2021|website=Smithsonian Magazine|language=en|archive-date=25 December 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201225201826/https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/einsteins-travel-diaries-reveal-his-deeply-troubling-views-race-180969387/|url-status=live}}</ref>) He was greeted with even greater enthusiasm on the last leg of his tour, in which he spent twelve days in [[Mandatory Palestine]], newly entrusted to British rule by the [[League of Nations]] in the aftermath of the First World War. [[Sir Herbert Samuel]], the British High Commissioner, welcomed him with a degree of ceremony normally only accorded to a visiting head of state, including a cannon salute. One reception held in his honor was stormed by people determined to hear him speak: he told them that he was happy that Jews were beginning to be recognized as a force in the world.{{sfnp|Isaacson|2007|p= 307–308}}

Einstein's decision to tour the eastern hemisphere in 1922 meant that he was unable to go to [[Stockholm]] in the December of that year to participate in the Nobel prize ceremony. His place at the traditional Nobel banquet was taken by a German diplomat, who gave a speech praising him not only as a physicist but also as a campaigner for peace.<ref name="oxak7"/> A two-week visit to Spain that he undertook in 1923 saw him collecting another award, a membership of the Spanish Academy of Sciences signified by a diploma handed to him by King [[Alfonso XIII]]. (His Spanish trip also gave him a chance to meet a fellow Nobel laureate, the neuroanatomist [[Santiago Ramón y Cajal]].)<ref name="w74nv"/>