From the Book - First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition.
Preface. Convergence : "the deepest idea in the universe"
Introduction. "The unity of the observable world"
Part one. The most important unifying ideas of all time. "The greatest of all generalizations"
"A single stroke unifies life, meaning, purpose, and physical law"
Part two. The long arm of the laws of physics. Beneath the pattern of the elements
The unification of space and time, and of mass and energy
The "consummated marriage" of physics and chemistry
The interplay of chemistry and biology : "the intimate connection between two kingdoms"
The Unity of Science Movement : "Integration is the new aim"
Hubble, Hitler, Hiroshima : Einstein's unifications vindicated
Part three. "The friendly invasion of the biological sciences by the physical sciences". Caltech and the Cavendish : from atomic physics to molecular biology via quantum chemistry
Biology, the "most unifying" science : the switch from reduction to composition
Part four. The continuum from minerals to man. Physics + astronomy = chemistry + cosmology : the second evolutionary synthesis
A biography of Earth : the unified chronology of geology, botany, linguistics, and archaeology
The overlaps between new disciplines : ethology, sociobiology, and behavioral economics
Climatology + oceanography + ethnography -> myth = big history
Civilization = the orchestration of geography, meteorology, anthropology, and genetics
The hardening of psychology and its integration with economics
Dreams of a final unification : physics, mathematics, information, and the universe
Spontaneous order : the architecture of molecules, new patterns in evolution, and the emergence of quantum biology
The biological origin of the arts, physics and philosophy, the physics of society, neurology and nature
Conclusion. Overlaps, patterns, hierarchies : a preexisting order?
