Einstein at the edge of the cliff. Parisian historians' expectations after his lectures at the Collège de France (1922-43)

Éric Brian, PhD from Orsay University (mathematics) and EHESS (history and social sciences), is director of studies at EHESS and a member of the Centre Maurice-Halbwachs (ENS-EHESS-CNRS), where he co-directs the intellectual history and history of science component. He is associate professor at the Institute for Philosophy at the University of Vienna (Austria). He is editor of the Revue de synthèse (Brill). He has published La Mesure de l'État. Administrateurs et géomètres au ^XVIIIe siècle (Albin-Michel, 1994), translated into German (Springer, 2001); Comment tremble la main invisible. Uncertainty and Markets (Springer, 2009); The Descent of Human Sex-Ratio at Birth. A Dialogue between Mathematics, Biology and Sociology (Springer, 2007); Le Sexisme de la première heure. Hasard et sociologie (Raisons d'agir, 2007); and (with other contributors) Maurice Halbwachs, Le Point de vue du nombre (Ined, [1936] 2005); Condorcert, Tableau historique de l'esprit humain. Esquisse, fragments et notes (Ined, 2004).