<Tr> <Th> LC Class </Th> <Td> QB981 . H377 1998 </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Followed by </Th> <Td> Black Holes and Baby Universes and Other Essays </Td> </Tr> <P> A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes is a popular - science book on cosmology (the study of the universe) by British physicist Stephen Hawking . It was first published in 1988 . Hawking wrote the book for nonspecialist readers with no prior knowledge of scientific theories . </P> <P> In A Brief History of Time, Hawking writes in non-technical terms about the structure, origin, development and eventual fate of the universe, which is the object of study of astronomy and modern physics . He talks about basic concepts like space and time, basic building blocks that make up the universe (such as quarks) and the fundamental forces that govern it (such as gravity). He writes about cosmological phenomena such as the Big Bang and the black holes . He discusses two major theories, general relativity and quantum mechanics, that modern scientists use to describe the universe . Finally, he talks about the search for a unifying theory that describes everything in the universe in a coherent manner . </P>

When did stephen hawking wrote a brief history of time