Big History: Between Nothing and Everything https://www.mheducation.com/cover-images/Jpeg_400-high/0073385611.jpeg 1 9780073385617 Big History: Between Nothing and Everything surveys the past not just of humanity, or even of planet Earth, but of the entire universe. In reading this book instructors and students will retrace a voyage that began 13.7 billion years ago with the Big Bang and the appearance of the universe. Big history incorporates findings from cosmology, earth and life sciences, and human history, and assembles them into a single, universal historical narrative of our universe and of our place within it.   The first edition of Big History: Between Nothing and Everything, is written by the pioneers of the field, and presents a framework for learning about anything and everything. It encourages students to think critically about our cumulative history and the future of the world through a variety of lenses. Instructors and students can now access their course content through the Connect digital learning platform by purchasing either standalone Connect access or a bundle of print and Connect access. McGraw-Hill Connect® is a subscription-based learning service accessible online through your personal computer or tablet. Choose this option if your instructor will require Connect to be used in the course. Your subscription to Connect includes the following: • SmartBook® - an adaptive digital version of the course textbook that personalizes your reading experience based on how well you are learning the content. • Access to your instructor’s homework assignments, quizzes, syllabus, notes, reminders, and other important files for the course. • Progress dashboards that quickly show how you are performing on your assignments and tips for improvement. • The option to purchase (for a small fee) a print version of the book. This binder-ready, loose-leaf version includes free shipping. Complete system requirements to use Connect can be found here: http://www.mheducation.com/highered/platforms/connect/training-support-students.html
Big History: Between Nothing and Everything

Big History: Between Nothing and Everything

1st Edition
By David Christian and Cynthia Brown and Craig Benjamin
ISBN10: 0073385611
ISBN13: 9780073385617
Copyright: 2014
09780073385617

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Program Details

Contents

Preface

Introduction: What Is Big History and How Do We Study It?

Seeing the Big Picture

Seeing the Whole of the Past

What Is Big History?

The Basic Shape of the Story: Increasing Complexity

A Framework: Eight Major Thresholds of Big History

A Note on Chronological Systems and Dates

Summary

Chapter 1 The First Three Thresholds: The Universe, Stars, and New Chemical Elements

Seeing the Big Picture

Threshold 1: Big Bang Cosmology and the Origin of the Universe

Threshold 2: The Origin of Galaxies and Stars

Threshold 3: The Creation of New Chemical Elements

Summary

Chapter 2 The Fourth Threshold: The Emergence of the Sun, the Solar System, and the Earth

Threshold 4: The Emergence of the Sun and Solar System

The Early Earth—a Short History

Shaping of Earth’s Surface

Summary

Chapter 3 The Fifth Threshold: The Emergence of Life

Seeing the Big Picture

How Life Changes through Natural Selection

Threshold 5: The Emergence of Life on Earth

A Brief History of Life on Earth

Summary

Chapter 4 The Sixth Threshold: Hominines, Humans, and the Paleolithic Era

Seeing the Big Picture

Hominine Evolution: 8 Million to 200,000 Years Ago

Threshold 6: The Appearance of Homo sapiens

The Paleolithic Era: 200,000 to 10,000 Years Ago

Summary

Chapter 5 The Seventh Threshold: Origins of Agriculture and the Early Agrarian Era

Seeing the Big Picture

Threshold 7: Agriculture

Explaining the Agricultural Revolution

The Early Agrarian Era

The Emergence of Consensual Power

Summary

Chapter 6 Mini-Threshold: The Appearance of Cities, States, and Agrarian Civilizations

Seeing the Big Picture

Defining Cities, States, and Agrarian Civilizations

The Buildup of Resources and Collective Learning

Uruk, the First City, in Sumer, the First State

Cities and States in Other Regions

Summary

Chapter 7 Afro-Eurasia during the Era of Agrarian Civilizations: Part 1

Seeing the Big Picture

Introduction to the Agrarian Later Era

The Era of Agrarian Civilizations

First Trend: The Expansion, Power, and Effectiveness of Agrarian Civilizations and Their Administrations

Summary

Chapter 8 Afro-Eurasia during the Era of Agrarian Civilizations: Part 2

Seeing the Big Picture

Second Trend: The Establishment of Significant Networks of Exchange among Agrarian Civilizations of Afro-Eurasia

Third Trend: Evolving Social and Gender Complexity

Fourth Trend: The Generally Slow Pace of Change and Growth

Summary

Chapter 9 Other World Zones during the Era of Agrarian Civilizations

Seeing the Big Picture

Agrarian Civilizations of the American Zone

The Pacific and Australasian World Zones

Chapter 10 On the Brink of a Threshold: Toward the Modern Revolution

Seeing the Big Picture

The Approach of the Modern Revolution

Why Rates of Innovation Increased: Drivers of Innovation

The World in 1000 CE

The Postclassical Malthusian Cycle: Before 1350 CE

The Early Modern Malthusian Cycle: 1350 to 1700 CE

The World in 1700 CE

Summary

Chapter 11 Crossing the Eighth Threshold: Breakthrough to Modernity

Seeing the Big Picture

Threshold 8: The Modern World/Anthropocene

Social, Agricultural, and Industrial Revolution in Great Britain

The Spread of the Industrial Revolution

Political Revolution: The Rise of the Modern State

The Emergence of Two Worlds—Developed and Developing

Other Consequences of the Industrial Revolution

Summary

Chapter 12 The Anthropocene: Globalization, Growth, and Sustainability

Seeing the Big Picture

Introduction

Part 1: Political and Military Changes

Part 2: Growth—More Humans Consuming More

Part 3: The Impact of Growth and Industrialization on Lifeways and Societies

Part 4: The Anthropocene and the Human Impact on the

Biosphere—Is Growth Sustainable?

Summary

Chapter 13 The History of the Future

Seeing the Big Picture

Future 1: The Near Future

Future 2: The Next Few Thousand Years

Future 3: The Remote Future

Conclusion—The End of the Story: Humans in the Cosmos

Summary

Glossary

Credits

Index

About the Author

David Christian

DAVID CHRISTIAN (DPhil, Oxford University) is by training a historian of Russia and the Soviet Union. He has spent most of his career at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, apart from an eight-year period teaching at San Diego State University from 2001 to 2008. Christian has published histories of modern Russia and also a study of the role of the trade in vodka in nineteenth-century Russia. In 1998, he published A History of Russia, Central Asia and Mongolia, the first volume in the Blackwell History of the World Series. He began teaching courses on big history in 1989 at Macquarie University. He first used the phrase big history for such courses in an article published in the Journal of World History in 1991 titled “The Case for ‘Big History.’ ” In 2010, with Bill Gates, he founded the “Big History Project,” which is building a free online high school course in big history due for release in late 2013. Christian is a member of the Australian Academy of Humanities and the Royal Holland Society of Sciences and Humanities. He is the founding president of the International Big History Association.

Cynthia Brown

CYNTHIA STOKES BROWN (PhD, Johns Hopkins University) spent most of her career directing the secondary teaching credential program at Dominican University of California. She taught selected courses in the history department and wrote books about civil rights history and teachers, Brown’s book Big History: From the Big Bang to the Present was published in 2007. Since then her interests have been consulting with the big history program at Dominican, serving on the board of the International Big History Association since its inception, and writing big history essays for high school students through the Big History Project funded by Bill Gates.

Craig Benjamin

CRAIG BENJAMIN (PhD, Macquarie University) is an associate professor of history in the Meijer Honors College at Grand Valley State University in Michigan. Like both his co-authors, Benjamin is a frequent presenter of lectures at conferences worldwide, and the author of numerous publications including books, chapters, and essays on ancient Central Asian history, big history, and world history. In addition, Benjamin has recorded lectures for the History Channel, The Teaching Company, and the Big History Project. He is currently a member of both the Advanced Placement and SAT World History Test Development Committees, vice president (president elect) of the World History Association, and has been treasurer of the International Big History Association since its inception in January 2011.