Table of Contents

Introduction
1: From Myths to the Copernican Universe
2: The Newtonian Era
3: Foundations of Modern Cosmology
4: The Hot Big Bang
5: New Horizons

About the Author

Helge Kragh is Professor of the History of Science at the University of Aarhus, Denmark, where his main field of research is the history of modern physical science. In this area he has published a biography of Paul Dirac (1990) and Quantum Generations (1999), a survey of twentieth-century physics. The main result of his interest in cosmology is Cosmology and Controversy, a book on the steady state model and its rivalry with Big Bang theory. More recently, he has
focused on the interaction between cosmology and religion, which was the subject of Matter and Spirit in the Universe from 2004.

Reviews

`With clarity and grace, Kragh fits a tremendous mass of facts, ideas, and interconnections into this slim volume intended for students, general readers, and interconections into this slim volume intended for students, general readers, and scholars in sciences and humanities.'
Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences, volume 37, part 2
`Conceptions of Cosmos is aimed at a relatively broad audience, though some background in the physical sciences will be used for the 20th-century sections. The book will certainly be enjoyed by working scientists and historians of science; its superb overview of the history of cosmology is unrivalled in terms of reliability and range of coverage.'
Physics Today, January 2008
`Kragh...writes with engaging clarity and insight. His book is thought-provoking and enlightening, a joy from beginning to end. Essential reading...'
Times Higher Education Supplement
`Kragh has accomplished his stated intention 'to write a history of how scientists...explored and thought of the universe.'
Choice