A Brief History of Time

A Brief History of Time

First edition
Author	Stephen Hawking
Language	English
Subject	Cosmology
Publisher	Bantam Dell Publishing Group
Publication date	April 1, 1988
Publication place	United Kingdom
Media type	Print (Hardcover and Paperback)
Pages	256
ISBN	978-0-553-10953-5
OCLC	39256652
Dewey Decimal	523.1 21
LC Class	QB981 .H377 1998
Followed by	Black Holes and Baby Universes and Other Essays

A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes is a book on theoretical cosmology by the physicist Stephen Hawking. It was first published in 1988. Hawking wrote the book for readers who had no prior knowledge of physics.

In A Brief History of Time, Hawking writes in non-technical terms about the structure, origin, development and eventual fate of the Universe, which is the object of study of astronomy and modern physics. He talks about basic concepts like space and time, basic building blocks that make up the Universe (such as quarks) and the fundamental forces that govern it (such as gravity). He writes about cosmological phenomena such as the Big Bang and black holes. He discusses two major theories, general relativity and quantum mechanics, that modern scientists use to describe the Universe. Finally, he talks about the search for a unifying theory that describes everything in the Universe in a coherent manner.

The book became a bestseller and has sold more than 25 million copies in 40 languages.^[1]