Popular Cosmology Books

• "The Origin and Evolution of the Universe" edited by Zuckerman and Malkan. A UCLA Center for the Study of the Evolution and Origin of Life (CSEOL) Symposium. 1996, Jones and Bartlett Publishers. I wrote the leadoff article in this collection.
• "The Very First Light", by John Mather and John Boslough, 1996. BasicBooks. The true history of the COBE project written by the Project Scientist.
• "Afterglow of Creation" by Marcus Chown. Good science journalism.
• "The Five Ages of the Universe : Inside the Physics of Eternity" by Fred Adams & Greg Laughlin. -- The very distant future of our Universe.
• "Our Evolving Universe" by Malcolm Longair. -- A book with beautiful pictures and a good non-technical introduction to cosmology.
• "Einstein's Greatest Blunder? : The Cosmological Constant and Other Fudge Factors in the Physics of the Universe" by Donald Goldsmith. I haven't read "The Runaway Universe : The Race to Discover the Future of the Cosmos" by the same author, but it covers the accelerating expansion seen in the recent supernova data.
• "Quintessence : The Mystery of the Missing Mass in the Universe" by Lawrence Krauss. An update of "The Fifth Essence". Dark Matter.
• "The Origin of the Universe" by John D. Barrow. Covers a wide range of topics: inflation, including the chaotic and perpetual versions, wormholes and space-time foam, the anthropic principle, with nice illustrations.
• "The Origins of our Universe" by Malcolm Longair. A small book based on the Christmas lectures at the Royal Society. Out of print.
• "Before the Beginning : Our Universe and Others" by Martin Rees. There are no equations, but also no grpahs, figures or illustrations of any kind.
• "Ripples in the Cosmos" by Michael Rowan-Robinson. Has the same erroneous T vs t graph as "Shadows of Creation". Out of print.
• "The Shadows of Creation", by Michael Riordan and David Schramm. Dark matter. Has the same erroneous T vs t graph as "Ripples in the Cosmos".
• "Coming of Age in the Milky Way" by Timothy Ferris. A more extensive coverage of the material in the "Creation of the Universe" show on PBS.
• "The Alchemy of the Heavens: Searching for Meaning in the Milky Way", by Ken Croswell. A good book about our Galaxy.
• "The First Three Minutes" by Steven Weinberg. Old but good treatment of light element synthesis. Out of print.
• "The Big Bang" by Joseph Silk. Many typos, unfortunately.
• "A Short History of the Universe" by Joseph Silk. Many typos, unfortunately.

College Introductory Astronomy Textbooks

• "Astronomy: The Evolving Universe", Michael Zeilik.
• "Astronomy: the Cosmic Perspective", Zeilik & Gaustad
• "Journey Through the Universe", Jay Pasachoff
• "Astronomy: From the Earth to the Universe", Jay Pasachoff
• "Abell's Exploration of the Universe", David Morrison, Sidney Woolf & Andrew Fraknoi
• "Realm of the Universe", George O. Abell, Sidney Woolf & David Morrison

College Astrophysics Textbooks

• "Introductory Astronomy and Astrophysics", Zeilik, Gregory & Smith
• "An Introduction to Modern Astrophysics", Bradley Carroll & Dale Ostlie

College Cosmology Textbooks

• "Cosmology", 3rd edition, Michael Rowan-Robinson. A recently updated classic.
• "Foundations of Modern Cosmology", Hawley and Holcomb. For upper division non-science majors.

Graduate Cosmology Textbooks

• "Gravitation and Cosmology" by Steven Weinberg.
• "Principles of Physical Cosmology" by P. J. E. Peebles.
• "The Early Universe" by Kolb and Turner.

© 1996-2000 Edward L. Wright. Last modified 30-Aug-2000