An introduction to a new way of looking at history, from a perspective that stretches from the beginning of time to the present day, Maps of Time is world history on an unprecedented scale. Beginning with the Big Bang, David Christian views the interaction of the natural world with the more recent arrivals in flora and fauna, including human beings.
Cosmology, geology, archeology, and population and environmental studies—all figure in David Christian's account, which is an ambitious overview of the emerging field of "Big History." Maps of Time opens with the origins of the universe, the stars and the galaxies, the sun and the solar system, including the earth, and conducts readers through the evolution of the planet before human habitation. It surveys the development of human society from the Paleolithic era through the transition to agriculture, the emergence of cities and states, and the birth of the modern, industrial period right up to intimations of possible futures. Sweeping in scope, finely focused in its minute detail, this riveting account of the known world, from the inception of space-time to the prospects of global warming, lays the groundwork for world history—and Big History—true as never before to its name.
Maps of Time An Introduction to Big History, With a New Preface
About the Book
Reviews
“A good read, a fascinating prospectus for a new kind of history.”—American Scientist
"David Christian has given us a state-of-the-art instance of Big History, a work of breathtaking synthesis."—Books & Culture: A Christian Review
"Christian has hit a home run. . . . This book should be required reading for any extraterrestrials visiting the earth for the first time."—College & Research Libraries News
“An ambitious and clearly-written account.”—Future Survey
"Christian's clarity of style and modesty add grace and subtlety to an ambitious effort."—Journal of Interdisciplinary History
"No brief can possible do even minimal justice to an author and his summa cum laude opus."—Journal of World History
"[Christian's] book is remarkably successful. It has the essential effect of first stimulating and then retaining the reader's interest."—New Scientist
"A fascinating read."—San Francisco Chronicle
“Forges bold and ingenious connections between the physical and social sciences.”—The Age
“A remarkable work of synthesis and scholarship. . . . Christian's Olympian perspective on the story of time is exhilarating.”—The Guardian
"No work in this genre [macro-history] is better than David Christian’s Maps of Time: An Introduction to Big History. . . . [I]t is a brilliantly executed act of provocation."—The Times"You've all seen the poster of the milky way galaxy with an arrow to a point about halfway out from the center and the caption, ‘You are here.’ This book is like that only more so. It locates the human experience in the entirety of space-time."—Alfred Crosby, author of Ecological Imperialism: The Biological Expansion of Europe, 900-1900
Table of Contents
Introduction: A Modern Creation Myth?
1. The First 300,000 Years: Origins of the Universe, Time, and Space
2. Origins of the Galaxies and Stars: The Beginnings of Complexity
3. Origins and History of the Earth
4. The Origins of Life and the Theory of Evolution
5. The Evolution of Life and the Biosphere
6. The Evolution of Humans
7. The Beginnings of Human History
8. Intensification and the Origins of Agriculture
9. From Power over Nature to Power over People: Cities, States, and Civilizations
10. Long Trends in the Era of Agrarian Civilizations
11. Approaching Modernity
12. Globalization, Commercialization, and Innovation
13. Birth of the Modern World
14. The Great Acceleration of the Twentieth Century
15. Futures
Media
TED Talk by David Christian, the author of Maps of Time