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I have studied General Relativity from various textbooks already, and the subject fascinated me immensely. I was wandering if there is any textbook that deals with the chronological "steps" that Einstein took (from 1906 to 1916) to complete his theory. I have read some passages from "The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein" and found them very interesting, especially all his correspondences with Tullio Levi-Civita. What I am looking for is something along the lines of this: https://www.pitt.edu/~jdnorton/teaching/HPS_0410/chapters/general_relativity_pathway/index.html but in much greater mathematical detail. Is there any such textbook around?

Thank you!

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To have one man’s steps distilled into textbook form is a lot to ask: who teaches a course on that? The next best thing might be the proceedings and collections in Einstein Studies (with contributions of the same John Norton):

   1. Einstein and the history of general relativity (1989),
   3. Studies in the history of general relativity (1992),
   5. The attraction of gravitation: New studies in the history of general relativity (1993),
   7. The expanding worlds of general relativity (1999),
   9. Einstein from "B'' to "Z'' (2002), by J. Stachel,
 11. The universe of general relativity (2005).

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The closest I can think of is Pais's Subtle is the Lord, although it is not a history textbook but rather Einstein's scientific biography, which literally retraces his steps based on the author's own interviews, among other things. He does also go into some mathematical details unlike the usual "literary" biographies. On differential geometry and the role of Marcel Grossman in leading Einstein to adopt Ricci and Levi-Civita's calculus specifically see How was Einstein led to make a contact with Differential Geometry for his theory of General Relativity?

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Edmund Whittaker's A history of the theories of aether and electricity, vol. II (Harper Brothers, NY, 1960) has a chapter on the history of general relativity with a lot of mathematical details.

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Although not a text book, a very enjoyable account that covers the history of general relativity from Einstein (and before) to the current research and understanding is "The Perfect Theory: A Century of Geniuses and the Battle over General Relativity" by Pedro G. Ferreira1 .

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