Maps of Time: An Introduction to Big HistoryAn 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. |
Contents
| 1 | |
| 15 | |
PART II LIFE ON EARTH | 77 |
MANY WORLDS | 137 |
FEW WORLDS | 205 |
ONE WORLD | 333 |
PART VI PERSPECTIVES ON THE FUTURE | 465 |
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Africa Afro-Eurasian agrarian civilizations agriculture Americas Andre Gunder Frank animals appeared areas argued Asia australopithecines began big bang big history brains Cambridge University Press China commercial communities complex Cosmic created creation myth cultural domesticates earliest early agrarian earth ecological economic emerged Empire energy environments eukaryotic Eurasia Europe European evolution evolved exchange networks existed expanded explain foragers forms fossil galaxies genetic global gravity Holocene hominines huge human history hydrogen ice age impact increased Industrial Revolution land larger lifeways living organisms London Lynn Margulis Mesoamerica Mesopotamia millennium BCE million years ago modern humans Modern Revolution Neanderthals networks of exchange Origins Oxford Paleolithic percent perhaps period plants population growth processes production prokaryotes regions scale secondary products revolution significant social societies species stars structures suggest survive technologies theory tion trade traditional transformed twentieth century Upper Paleolithic William McNeill World History world system world zones