On the shoulders of giants

In this book, the five classics of physics and astronomy are gathered together for the first time, reset in one reader's edition with informative and entertaining essays explaining the human and scientific side of each man's story. In this single volume, you will find original papers from Albert Einstein, first published in The Principle of relativity, plus the following books: On the revolutions of heavenly spheres by Nicolaus Copernicus, Dialogues concerning two sciences by Galileo Galilei, Book five of Harmonies of the world by Johannes Kepler, and Principia by Isaac Newton. Hawking explains how these works changed the course of science, ushering astronomy and physics out of the middle ages and into the modern world.