Longair M. The Cosmic Century: A History of Astrophysics and Cosmology

Cambridge University Press, 2006. - 545 pp.
The twentieth-century witnessed the development of astrophysics and cosmology from subjects which scarcely existed to two of the most exciting and demanding areas of contemporary scientific inquiry. In this book Malcolm Longair reviews the historical development of the key areas of modern astrophysics, linking the strands together to show how they have led to the extraordinarily rich panorama of modern astrophysics and cosmology. While many of the great discoveries were derived from pioneering observations, the emphasis is upon the development of theoretical concepts and how they came to be accepted. These advances have led astrophysicists and cosmologists to ask some of the deepest questions about the nature of our Universe and have pushed astronomical observations to the very limit. This is a fantastic story, and one which would have defied the imaginations of even the greatest story-tellers.Stars and Stellar Evolution up to the Second World War
The legacy of the nineteenth century.
The classification of stellar spectra.
Stellar structure and evolution.
The end points of stellar evolution.
The Large-Scale Structure of the Universe, 1900–39
The Galaxy and the nature of spiral nebulae.
The origins of astrophysical cosmology.
The Opening up of the Electromagnetic Spectrum
The opening up of the electromagnetic spectrum and the new astronomies.
The Astrophysics of Stars and Galaxies since 1945
Stars and stellar evolution.
The physics of the interstellar medium.
The physics of galaxies and clusters of galaxies.
High-energy astrophysics.
Astrophysical Cosmology since 1945
Astrophysical cosmology.
The determination of cosmological parameters.
The evolution of galaxies and active galaxies with cosmic epoch.
The origin of galaxies and the large-scale structure of the Universe.
The very early Universe.