Big History: From the Big Bang to the Present by Cynthia Stokes Brown (PDF)

Description

“This exciting saga crosses space and time to illustrate how humans, born of stardust, were shaped―and how they in turn shaped the world we know today.” ―Publishers Weekly This book offers “world history on a grand scale”―pulling back for a wider view and putting the relatively brief time span of human history in context. After all, our five thousand years of recorded civilization account for only about one millionth of the lifetime of our planet (Kirkus Reviews). Big History interweaves different disciplines of knowledge, drawing on both the natural sciences and the human sciences, to offer an all-encompassing account of history on Earth. This new edition is more relevant than ever before, as we increasingly grapple with accelerating rates of change and, ultimately, the legacy we will bequeath to future generations. Here is a path-breaking portrait of our world, from the birth of the universe from a single point the size of an atom to life on a twenty-first-century planet inhabited by seven billion people.

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: Review “This exciting saga crosses space and time to illustrate how humans, born of stardust, were shaped―and how they in turn shaped the world we know today.”―Publishers Weekly “There’s much to argue about in Brown’s account, and much to discover.”―The Washington Post “Brown combines the findings of major authorities in the natural sciences and the human sciences, crisply portraying the discoveries and debates on history at the grandest scale.”―Patrick Manning, Andrew W. Mellon Professor of World History, University of Pittsburgh About the Author Cynthia Stokes Brown is a retired professor of education at Dominican University of California. She has written works of history and biography, including the American Book Award-winning Ready from Within: Septima Clark and the Civil Rights Movement, Connecting with the Past, and Refusing Racism. She lives in Berkeley, California.

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐Wonderful in her writing, and definitely invites arguments of the good kind, Cynthia Stokes Brown provides us a history on a grand scale, but it starts with the beginning of the universe and not at the beginning of the written word. It is certainly ambitious to start history with the Big Bang, of course that would mean changing the purpose of human history and framing it in the context of the known scientific universe. This would mean that the relationship of humans towards their environment becomes the central theme of this historical narrative. The book’s organization is chronological, as with the case of the genre known as “big history.” Right from the start, Brown makes it clear that the creation of the Universe, the Earth, the environment that it created, and the sentient life that emerged from it. It can be rather surprising that Big History was able to cover a 13.7-billion-year timeframe in about 300 pages, which can potentially make the book overwhelming in its information. However, in Brown’s case, it is certainly not boring. Big History functions sort of as a summary of history, with the first part covering how the Earth was made and the second part a grand summary of human history. Why in a summary? This is probably a core tenant of “big history:” move beyond specialized history and look at the big picture. This is certainly an ambitious subject and, if done correctly, can certainly raise lively discussions. When looking into the bibliography of Big History, one can note that it is almost exclusively secondary sources. Again, refer to a core tenant of “big history;” moving beyond specialized history. While utilizing secondary resources when crafting a general history is certainly not a bad thing, this leads to one disadvantage: leaving certain events in history out of the study. It is a common criticism always thrown at studies involving “big history,” and Brown’s book is no exception to the criticism. Among other things, Big History does not spend much time on the impact of the Russian Revolution that brought about the Soviet Union nor the larger-scale impact of Fascism. In the context of the environment, the ideas of the former (later) emphasized a need to create an environmentally sustainable socialism without impeding human growth and progress while the latter saw a need to sustain that growth via wiping out a certain percentage point of the human population. This isn’t the book to learn about one topic in human history, but Big History is certainly something that can catch the attention of the lay person; assumingly the target audience that Brown was aiming for, along with future and current teachers. Criticisms aside, the book will certainly provide something new to learn and to discuss. That is, something that would help us as humanity to better understand our position on Earth and the universe.

⭐In 1989, an American history professor named David Christian was teaching at Macquarie University in Sydney when he offered a course entitled Big History. Rejecting historians’ definition of the discipline as beginning with the advent of written records just 5,500 years ago, Christian’s course began with the Big Bang, 13.7 billion years in the past. He invited colleagues on the Macquarie faculty to lecture on astronomy, physics, geology, biology, and other scientific disciplines to fill in the billions of years that transpired before any human set foot on our planet. Christian’s course proved popular, and the idea spread to historians in other countries. A new sub-discipline was born. There is now an International Big History Association.Big History in printNearly two decades later, another American historian, Cynthia Stokes Brown, took up the challenge of writing a book about history as Christian had re-conceived it. She had recently retired from Dominican University in California. The result was Big History: From the Big Bang to the Present (2007). While Christian leaned on colleagues in the sciences to carry the story for its first 13.65 billion years, Brown took it all on herself. With a good deal of simplification but relatively few apparent errors, she surveys the prehistorical past with great skill. For anyone who thinks history is the story of wars and generals and presidents, Big History is a worthy remedy.Responding to overspecializationBig History is a belated response to the extreme specialization that now characterizes virtually every academic discipline. It’s no longer enough to specialize in world history, or even ancient history. A scholar needs to specialize in a particular era in the history of Greece. Candidates for Ph.Ds in history need to go even further. For example, a dissertation might be written about women’s role in Spartan society during the Pelopenessian War. Just take a look at the titles of recent doctoral dissertations in nearly any field, if you don’t believe me. I, for one, think this is tragic. God may be in the details, but even She could get lost there.Other works on Big HistoryBy the way, Christian himself didn’t write this book because instead he approached the topic differently. He wrote two textbooks, Maps of Time: An Introduction to Big History, and Big History: From Nothing to Everything, in collaboration with Craig Benjamin. His more accessible treatment of the subject is a 48-lecture course he recorded for Great Courses. The title is simply Big History. Bill Gates was so impressed by it that he reportedly financed its distribution to schools to the tune of $10 million. I’ve listened to all 48 lectures and loved it.

⭐Easy to read and couldn’t put it down (read it in about 3 days)Well written with a mountain of information and ideas

⭐just a fantastic read. a bit academic at times, but overall a nice cohesive narrative. thoroughly recommend this for anyone who wants to understand their place in space and time.

⭐Haven’t finished reading it but love it so far. Concise and to the point without over elaborating on time or place when describing the events of our and earth’s history.

⭐I love this book.

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