A must book for the serious as well as a casual reader of cosmology. The title (what my grammar teacher would have remotely categorized as an oxymoron) emphasizes the contradiction of ’a brief history’ for such a ’vast space-time continuum’. This sort of simplification for the lay reader can be attempted only by a great theoretical physicist / Cosmologist such as Hawking.
Much has been said about the physically challenged condition of Stephen Hawking and the will power in living with the rare motor-neuron disease afflicting him. Despite all odds, he is ranked amongst the foremost scientists of our age.
Through the course of ’this brief history’, Hawking convincingly de-mystifies to the lay reader the frontiers of cosmology in simple language. The reader is led through the concepts of time & space, the expanding universe, the Uncertainty principle, Elementary particles & forces, the intriguing black holes, the arrow of time, Worm holes and time travel, future endeavors in presenting a unified theory of forces etc. by Hawking using common language intelligible to the lay reader.
The most appealing feature of the book, however, is the way Hawking shares candidly his own mistakes and confusions prior to his ultimate breakthrough. He comes out as a most human and humane scientist eliciting the reader’s faith in his theories.
Do not go by the size of the book. The concepts presented are currently hot topics in Cosmology / theoretical physics. A superb book!