The Universe Around Us

In 1929 James Jeans set out to explain the whole of the known cosmos to readers who had never opened a physics textbook, and the book made him a household name. He starts with atoms and ends with galaxies, moving through the solar system, the structure and life cycle of stars, the strange spiral nebulae, and the shape of the Milky Way. Along the way he takes up the questions people actually want answered: where it all came from, how long it has lasted, and whether anyone else is out there. Jeans was writing at the moment the expanding universe was being confirmed and physicists were working out what fuels a star, and the excitement of that shows on every page. Free PDF and EPUB editions are available here.