Schutz B. Gravity from the Ground Up An Introductory Guide to Gravity and General Relativity

Cambridge University Press,2003, 462 p. This book is about gravity at the threshold of this revolution. We will take a tour of the Universe from the ground up. We will start at the surface of the Earth and move outwards through the Solar System, the Galaxy, and beyond to a scale where our Galaxy is the merest atom in the corpus of the Universe. We will learn about gravity and the other laws that govern the Universe, first as understood by Newton and his successors, then as understood by Einstein and modern physicists. We will use these laws to see how the parts of the Universe work, how they relate to one another, and how they may have come to be. By the end of our tour we will see the Universe and its physical laws, not merely as a collection of fascinating but separate phenomena, but rather as a unity.
Our goal is not just to wonder and marvel at our Universe, nor simply to admire the cleverness of the scientists who have made the Universe at least partially understandable. Instead, our goal is to understand how the Universe works, to begin to think about the Universe in the same way that these scientists themselves do.