From the Big Bang to Black Holes
by Stephen Hawking

A Brief History of Time was quite a phenomenon in and around the late 1980s when it was first published. Written for the layman, it nevertheless provides a comprehensible picture of ‘what we know’ for anyone who cares about science and philosophy. I cannot imagine a better introduction for young minds entering the scientific disciplines—particularly theoretical physics or cosmology. In my own case, as one who ventures a number of normative[1] abstractions or values in a sociological context, I’m interested in the philosophical “so what?”[2] that may be seen to be supported by reason and science. I have long appreciated other hard-knowledge populizers: Isaac Asimov, Jacob Bronowski, and Carl Sagan (who wrote the introduction to History of Time) come to mind. Continue reading →