Cosmology and Controversy: The Historical Development of Two Theories of the Universe

"The ultimate validation of the big-bang theory makes for a fascinating book. Kragh [tells] the story in comprehesive and compelling detail".--Jack Zirker, National Optical Astronomy ObservatoriesFor over three millennia, most people could understand the universe only in terms of myth, religion, and philosophy. Between 1920 and 1970, cosmology transformed into a branch of physics. With this remarkably rapid change came a theory that would finally lend empirical support to many long-held beliefs about the origins and development of the entire universe: the theory of the big bang. In this book, Helge Kragh presents the development of scientific cosmology for the first time as a historical event, one that embroiled many famous scientists in a controversy over the very notion of an evolving universe with a beginning in time. In rich detail he examines how the big-bang theory drew inspiration from and eventually triumphed over rival views, mainly the steady-state theory and its concept of a stationary universe of infinite age.In the 1920s, Alexander Friedmann and Georges Lema