“Comprehensive in scope, with massive detail, this latest volume in Norton’s ‘History of Science’ series surveys facts and ideas about the universe from prehistoric observations, ancient mythologies, and rational speculations to space exploration, radio astronomy, and modern cosmogony. . . . North focuses on recent advances in instruments (telescope, spectroscope, antenna, camera, rocket) and new theories in physics that have brought about remarkable discoveries in astronomy (quasars, pulsars, supernovae) and dynamic models in cosmology.” (James Birx
Library Journal 1994-01-01)
“A book that should be read by every historian of science who wishes to get the history of astronomy right. It also has a good deal to teach the specialists in that field. John North is one of our most distinguished historians of astronomy and by far the most versatile. . . . No one is more qualified to undertake a survey of the entire history of the oldest science, and North has done so with a judgment and clarity that can serve as a model.” (author unlisted
Isis)
“This book is a major achievement that trembles on the brink of being a masterpiece. . . . North is well qualified to write this book: he has a lifetime of experience in the history of astronomy and a narrative style that is a pleasure to read.” (Desmond King-Hele, winner of the Eddington Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1971 and author of, among others, Erasmus Darwin: A Life of Unequalled Achievement .)
“
Astronomy and Cosmology is the remarkable story of the sustained human endeavor to understand our place in the universe.” (Sir Bernard Lovell, British physicist and radio astronomer and author of many books including Pathways to the Universe)
“At nearly 900 pages, this is a suitably monumental book about the biggest subject of all: the cosmos. . . . This remarkable work brings together the global history, theories, people and technologies of astronomy to tell a story that 'has very few intellectual parallels in the whole of human history.'"”
(P. D. Smith
Guardian 2009-08-16)