Key themes
- Time, space and the universe's structure
- The limits of human understanding
- Science as a quest for a complete theory
About this book
Black holes, the Big Bang and the shape of the cosmos for the general reader; the bestseller that made physics fashionable.
Published in 1988, A Brief History of Time spent 237 weeks on the Sunday Times bestseller list. Hawking reportedly agreed that most readers who bought it did not finish it.
Discussion questions
- Hawking wrote the book to be readable without mathematics. Do you think he succeeds — and at what point, if any, did you feel the limits of explanation without equations?
- The book ends with the hope for a 'complete theory' — a unified explanation of everything. What would it mean to 'know the mind of God', as Hawking puts it? Is this a scientific goal or a philosophical one?
- Black holes are among the book's central subjects. What did reading about them change in how you think about space, time or matter?
- Hawking was writing this while living with motor neurone disease. Does knowing this context change how you read the book — particularly its ambitions and its tone?
- The book was a global bestseller, read by millions who reportedly found it difficult. What does its popularity say about human curiosity — and about what non-expert readers get from engaging with science?
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