Stephen Hawking surveys the origin and fate of the universe — the Big Bang, black holes, and the nature of time — for readers with no background in physics.
Books mentioned in A Brief History of Time (9)
Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant: “the philosopher Immanuel Kant in his monumental (and very obscure) work Critique of Pure Reason, published in 1781”
The City of God by Augustine of Hippo: “Another argument was put forward by St. Augustine in his book The City of God.”
Two New Sciences by Galileo Galilei: “It was this work, referred to as Two New Sciences, even more than his support for Copernicus, that was to be the genesis of modern physics.”
Principia Mathematica by Isaac Newton: “Sir Isaac Newton published his Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, probably the most important single work ever published in the physical sciences.”
On the Heavens by Aristotle: “the Greek philosopher Aristotle, in his book On the Heavens, was able to put forward two good arguments for believing that the earth was a round sphere”
The System of the World by Pierre-Simon Laplace: “Laplace included it in only the first and second editions of his book The System of the World, and left it out of later editions”
100 Authors Against Einstein: “When a book was published entitled 100 Authors Against Einstein, he retorted, “If I were wrong, then one would have been enough!””
The Time Machine by H. G. Wells: “Wells in The Time Machine explored these possibilities as have countless other writers of science fiction.”
Books that mention A Brief History of Time (2)
Hitch-22 by Christopher Hitchens: “Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time, from the bag of books taken to Iraq.”