PLEASE NOTE: This is a key takeaways and analysis of the book and NOT the original book. Start Publishing Notes’ Summary, Analysis, and Review of Neil deGrasse Tyson’s Astrophysics for People in a Hurry includes a summary of the book, a review, analysis & key takeaways, and a detailed “About the Author” section. 

PREVIEW: Neil deGrasse Tyson, a former star, amateur wrestler at Harvard who went on to become an award-winning astrophysicist, might be the most well-known science communicator in the United States since the late Carl Sagan. Tyson, who has served as the director of the Hayden Planetarium in New York City since 1996, had published a dozen books prior to Astrophysics for People in a Hurry; all of them have been aimed at a popular audience. In spite of that, Astrophysics for People in a Hurry is probably his most accessible and scaled-down work to date. 

In the introduction, Tyson explains that he has written the book for people who are “too busy to absorb the cosmos via classes, textbooks, or documentaries.” Given the daunting nature of the subject matter - an astrophysics primer in twelve chapters and 200 pages - one has a reason to be skeptical about how effectively Tyson can convey this material. Tyson himself realizes this but also wants to address the concerns of busy, confused people who have looked heavenward and thought about their place in the universe.