For someone who has read dozens of science books in the past few years, it might be a bit surprising to hear that I hadn’t read Hawking’s “A Brief History of Time” before now. It’s widely considered to be one of the most influential science books – destined to the public – ever written.  

Clearly written to be accessible to the general population, it tackles most of what one would associate with modern physics. Name it, it’s probably there. The origins of the universe, the fate of the universe, the concept of time, the arrow of time, the speed of light, gravity, electromagnetism, both nuclear forces, black holes, quantum mechanics, particle physics, string theory, and other major ideas that are commonplace in today’s discourse. In fact, most of these things are still actively studied today.

If you’re like me and you’ve watched modern science, especially on YouTube or other video platforms, you will undoubtedly see this book’s influence over their work. Many of the same analogies or the same comparisons from the book are re-purposed in this modern format. This tells me how fundamental Hawking’s work is to modern science communicators.

It’s not a long read – clocking in under 200 pages – and it’s mostly quite easy to read. The chapter on quantum mechanics is a bit more tenuous due to the nature of quantum mechanics itself, especially hard to grasp and explain in terms that make sense in our reality.

There are probably better books on all of these subjects available today. After all, science communication has come a long way since the days of Stephen Hawking and other contemporaries like Feynman and Sagan. Furthermore, all of these fields that fall under the umbrella of “physics” are constantly evolving. By definition, science is an ongoing process. Consequently, modern books can be more complete and precise.

That being said, this is still as good an introduction to the immense world of modern physics as you can get. Especially since there are probably hundreds of thousands in used book store across the world, so you easily can get in for a couple of dollars. And you should!