Book review: A Brief History of the Universe J P McEvoy

[Captain Caveman]

Picked this up while wandering through an Astro section in Hay-on-Wye for £3 and my recent stargazing and looking at the planets had made me curious about the history of astronomy and its role in our culture and past cultures

The book goes from Babylonia to Egypt, Greece and then Europe in the dark and Middle ages showing the direct connections between the ages. Then it goes on to explore the important figures of Copernicus, Galileo, Tycho, Brahe and Newton before moving into more modern astronomers and towards the big bang theory

It is quite amazing to learn more about some astronomers eg - Hubble was a bit of a self-publicist and many of them were awkward and got many points very wrong!

Whilst quite a quick run through it all it has stimulated me to want to know more about some of these characters and understand more about moderne theories. Occaisonally it jumps around a bit much between characters but overall a nice read and should inspire anyone to focus more on their own topic of interest

Note, it does not go much past 1960's so you'll need another book or 3 for that!

I'd be happy to hear you recommendations, I think my next book will be Fabric of the Comsos, though I still have the Original Hawking best-seller unread (apparently the most unread book of all time!)