A Brief History of Time is a popular science book written by Professor Stephen Hawking and first published in 1988. It rapidly became a best-seller, and had sold 9 million copies by 2002.

It attempts to explain a range of subjects in cosmology, including the Big Bang and black holes, to the nonspecialist reader. Its main goal is to give an overview of the subject but, unusually for a popular science book, it also attempts to explain some complex mathematics.

A recent edition is ISBN 0553380168.

See also: A Brief History of Time (movie)