Time Map: An Introduction to Big History

Author: David Christian [USA]
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2007-01-01
Features: The Time Map combines natural history and human history into a grand and accessible narrative. This is a great achievement, similar to how Isaac Newton used the law of uniform motion in the 17th century to connect the Earth and celestial bodies; it is even closer to the achievement of Charles Darwin in the 19th century, which revealed the connection between humans and other life forms through the process of evolution. These books expand the geographical and temporal scope of historical research, showing that as early as 1989, when David Christian began developing textbooks, he casually wondered, "Why can't we start from the origin of the universe?" His colleagues immediately asked him to share his ideas. Unlike other historians who limited their teaching scope to world history, Christian decided to begin with the universe itself. In the year he jokingly called this research "Big History," he also hesitated, and colleagues from other departments, who were dedicated to teaching different courses in their respective fields, extended a helping hand to him.