A brief history of time: from the Big Bang to Black Holes

A brief history of time: from the Big Bang to Black Holes

By Stephen Hawking

‘A brief history of time: from the Big Bang to Black Holes’ is the record-breaking bestseller book which is published in 1988 by Transworld Publishers Ltd in Britain. The popular book on cosmology, the study of the universe, was written by British physicist Stephen Hawking for the non-specialist reader. To read this book no need to have prior knowledge on cosmology. He introduces the cosmological terms and facts using easier words for all types of readers. He discusses basic concepts about space and time, basic building blocks of the universe, quarks, and fundamental forces, gravity, which governs it. He elucidates the terms of general relativity and quantum mechanics that create thirstiness for further readers while reading.  

The book is adorned with a total of eleven chapters. The introduction of the book is written by Carl Sagan where he mentions the memories of meeting Isaac Newton. A glossary and an Index are attached to the books for the convenient of elementary readers. The brief biography of Albert Einstein, Galileo Galilei, and Isaac Newton also attached in this book.

In the beginning chapter, he illustrates the territory of the universe. He shows here how colossal the universe is! The answer to the question, like was there a beginning of time? Could time run backward? Is the universe infinite or does it have boundaries? , could be found in this book.

In this book, he describes the black holes, the most enthralling topics of the cosmology, here. The origin and the fate of the universe are also described here elaborately using scientific explanation and logic.

The essence of the book is found as Hawking explicitly stated about time, the universe and god, ‘a universe with no edge in space, no beginning or end in time, and nothing for a Creator to do’.

Book review writer-

Tarek Aziz

A student of Chemistry Department, Jahangirnagar University.