A Brief History of Time is Stephen Hawking’s explanation of the search for the grand unified theory of physics. Intended for a popular audience, the text glosses over a lot of the fine print and nuance in physics while providing newcomers with a sort of quick introduction to building blocks like general relativity, quantum mechanics and the uncertainty principle, and so forth. It’s surprisingly readable and even enjoyable, more so than most popular-press physics books. In particular I found its discussion of force-bearing particles a good deal clearer than that of other texts. Still I think it foundered a bit towards the end - or perhaps my own understanding and attention span did. I think the problem is that the text takes for granted an understanding of certain concepts, such as the role Einstein’s gravitational constant plays in general relativity. And there are a handful of places where Hawking spends entirely too much time navel-gazing on the finer points of debates within physics - especially those with which he took part - and not enough time spelling out the details of key concepts; that struck me as particularly problematic in his explanation of string theory, which seemed to omit such basic ideas as what a string actually is meant to be.

What struck me as the most fascinating theme interwoven throughout the text is the role of theology in Hawking’s understanding of the grand unified theory. He is particularly concerned about what one theory or another might mean for the role of an omnipotent creator. Whether that’s because of his own personal proclivities or because of debates about religion and science that were raging when he wrote this book - before the fall of the Soviet Union! - is not entirely clear to me. Regardless it was striking to me how much Hawking, who after all is fascinated by the search for a theory which will explain all of existence, has such tunnel vision about Judeo-Christian theology. Hindu cosmology, for example, seems to me a good deal more harmonious with Hawking’s ideas about space-time. It’s understandable, of course, that he would be affected by his own social context - aren’t we all - but I suppose it goes to show that all of us could stand to expand our perspective a bit.

This book was quite a big hit when it was first published, and understandably so! Despite a few weak spots it’s still the best explanation of the search for the grand unified theory that I’ve yet read.