This book has two aspects: first, it attempts to provide a factual narrative that explains the basic premise of reality as understood by scientific inquiry through the ages. Also, it seeks to capture the real human history of how humans came to gradually understand science more precisely, starting in ancient Greece and ending with his own impressive contribution. He also offers his own philosophical interpretation of the sciences, although that is a minor note compared to the largely factual and informative book.
The reader sees a dance of theory and analysis which makes time a fascinating concept. Instead of just providing literal history about the universe's passage through time, the book also backs up to include descriptions of the a priori phenomena which underpin the universe's elaborate unfolding. That is to say, the book also provides a metaphysic for understanding what time is and how it might be happening. By the end of those considerations, though, the philosophical ideas are largely unanswered and remain mysterious, but a record of our progress is established.
Although the reader might feel that time is obvious, this book shows that it is scientifically sophisticated and difficult to understand what science does in reality. For instance, there is the human experience of time which is generally accepted as a valid definition of time—no one needs proof of time's passage because we all exist in time—but when it comes to numbers and science, Hawking shows that time can be very difficult to define. That is a subtle analysis of reality, because everything observable is inherently unexplained and unexplainable. He shows what the scientific consensus is from a functional point of view.
