The classic of contemporary science writing by a Nobel Prize-winning physicist explains what happened when the universe began, and how we know."Science writing at its best." — Martin Gardner, New York Review of Books
"Weinberg builds such a convincing case...that one comes away from his book feeling not only that the idea of an original cosmic explosion is not crazy but that any other theory appears scientifically irrational." — Jeremy Bernstein, The New Yorker

"The book is the first I have seen to have put the details, both historical and conceptual, of the origin of the Universe within the grasp of the general reader." — Isaac AsimovA