Before the Big Bang

“A fascinating read” that explores theories for the origin of the universe from throughout history (New Scientist).

Los Angeles Times Summer Reading Pick

“Clegg follows the footsteps of Carl Sagan’s Cosmos, Steven Hawking’s A Brief History of Time and Timothy Ferris’s Coming of Age in the Milky Way. He shares his predecessors’ enthusiasm, eloquence and ability to explain complex ideas but provides a bonus by covering startling developments of the past decade. Anyone looking for an introduction to or a refresher course in cosmology need look no further.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Since astrophysicist Fred Hoyle coined “Big Bang” as a term of abuse for a theory that he despised, it has become everyday usage. Although few of us really understand what the Big Bang was—and it’s certainly a misnomer for an event that was both extremely small and wasn’t an explosion—it is now accepted wisdom that this was how the universe began. But the idea of Big Bang doesn’t so much answer questions as raise new ones. If the universe as we know it originated in the Big Bang, what came before it? At one time a taboo subject, science is now prepared to look back past the beginning—to answer the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything with something more satisfying than Douglas Adams’s cryptic forty-two. It’s an incredible journey through mind-bending theories into the deepest past.

“Clegg’s relatively jargon-free style makes for a good introduction for general readers.” —Publishers Weekly