Maps of Time: An Introduction to Big History

California World History Library

by David Christian, William H. McNeill (Foreword)

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.

Genres: History, Science, Nonfiction, World History, Philosophy, Physics, Biology

642 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

David Gilbert Christian is an Anglo-American historian and scholar of Russian history notable for creating and spearheading an interdisciplinary approach known as Big History. He grew up in Africa and in England, where he earned his B.A. from Oxford University, an M.A. in Russian history from the University of Western Ontario, and a Ph.D. in 19th century Russian history from Oxford University in 1974.

He began teaching the first course in 1989 which examined history from the Big Bang to the present using a multidisciplinary approach with assistance from scholars in diverse specializations from the sciences, social sciences, and humanities. The course frames human history in terms of cosmic, geological, and biological history. He is credited with coining the term Big History and he serves as president of the International Big History Association.

Christian's best-selling Teaching Company course entitled Big History caught the attention of philanthropist Bill Gates who is personally funding Christian's efforts to develop a program to bring the course to high school students worldwide in part via the website http://www.bighistoryproject.com

Reviews

[Marc · Rating 3 out of 5]

It took more than two months to read this 600-page book, intensively taking notes. That is to say that it really is worth it. I'm a graduate in history myself, and I like to read detailed monographs, but at the same time I'm very fond of authors that try to see the broader picture. "Big History" (as Christian propagates) requires courage and a talent to filter a storyline out of the chaotic mass of details, whilst respecting a thorough accurateness and a sense of nuance.
In this book Christian has chosen for the highest possible (bird)perspective, beginning with the Big Bang all the way up (though without using the word "progress") to the present, and even looking into the future of coming centuries and millenia.
I'm impressed by the literature Christian has digested and his ability to really capture the broader picture and present it in a digestible way. The most interesting chapter was the one in which he describes the big trends in agrarian societies, roughly between 3000 BCE and the year 1500: I've never read anything like that anywhere else.
But of course, such an ambitious work also has a lot of weaknesses. The most important to me is that Christian (whilst denying this explicitly) favours a kind of historical materialism: in almost all chapters the economic organisation of society is the driving force behind change or transformation; political and especially cultural developments or attitudes are downplayed or ignored.
Secondly Christian is following with a bit too much ease recent trends in historiography: in the chapter on the appearance of modern man (the homo sapiens) the main these is based on just one publication in a science magazine; Christian also almost blindly follows recent (western) publications that state that the Chinese economy from the eleventh until the eighteenth century was manyfold bigger and more intensive than the European/atlantic economy (there are indications that this is plausible, but not so much real proof). And finally, I have some issues with his final chapter, about the centuries and millennia to come: this is nothing less than an ecological pamphlet; and of course there are good reasons to do so, but as an historian, I'm very weary of political statements that use (misuse) the past as proof.
See also my review in my Sense-of-History-account: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Sense of History]

Let there be no misunderstanding: this is a really interesting book, very elaborate and thoroughly researched, offering a pioneer study into Big History. I think it is original in this sense that, with the exception maybe of the Amsterdam researcher Fred Spier, David Christian was the first to offer a real bird-eye view of history, starting with the history of the universe (Big Bang and all that stuff), going to the formation of the earth, its climate and its many inhabitants, reaching out into the future, and to the probable end of the universe.

That’s quite something, of course, but in this case the strength of the book is also its weakness: because Christian takes the bird-eye view, the relevance of his broad approach remains very limited. What have I learned about the sense of life, and the sense of history in this book? Well, first and uttermost, there’s the very tiny role mankind plays in the history of the universe. Now, that is no original or revolutionary insight. More so, it is a bit contradictary that Christian in one of his final chapters has to take note that mankind, in his short time of existence has already been able to put his mark on the history and the condition of this tiny planet, even going so far as to threaten its existence.

Secondly: coincidence and luck are two very relevant factors in evolution and history. Christian goes at length to illustrate this, in a very interesting chapter on the evolution theory and the evolution of the species; now, in his account of human history, this insight is kept out of view; instead he describes how human societies have systematically evolved into ever more complex situations; on the micro-level this may seem very accidental, but on the macro-level you can’t deny the conclusion that the evolution to evermore complexity just is constant, and thereby inherent.

In the same way, Christion explicitly refrains from using the word ‘progress’, but as a reader you can simple feel that at times he was really struggling to keep the word out of his narrative; I can understand some of the reasons why he is doing this (most of all the danger of a teleological view on history), but there’s no sense in denying the sunlight.

Thirdly: Christian makes a circular movement in taking holism as the departing ground for his Big History, and he’s wright doing so; but it is a bridge too far in the next steps to come to the conclusion that everything is connected. I have my doubts about his multiple use of the word “Afro-Eurasian network” (just as with father and son McNeill): this suggests that experiences, knowledge and ideas circulated freely and evenly in the whole of this vast area, and people could, at any time, use this material to create something new and spectacular. It is obvious this was not so. Of course, Christian tries to correct our traditional view that civilizations flourished independently, and he is right doing so, but his pendulum is going just the other way.

In this view, his adjustement of the traditional view of the “Rise of the West” is just pathetic: according to Christian Western Europe around 1500 just had the luck it found itself geographically at the center of the newly created Atlantic network, and this, together with its commercial competitiveness should explain the supremacy it gained in the nineteenth Century. This is just too simple to be true.

Finally, I must agree with other critics, that Christian has gone way to far in his ambition to create a new, Modern Creation Myth, based on science and especially the Big History-view. This view is very useful to put some things into perspective, and to adjust traditional opinions on history and the place of man in it (and that's quite something). But it fails to offer a new Grand Vision on life and the sense of history (like the elder creation myths did). I agree with the reviewer that stated that “Christian offers no satisfying answers to the existential questions that lay nagging underneath his work, leaving the reader as cold and empty as the dead universe he describes” (Mike Hankins). Perhaps I'm too harsh on Christian; after all, he has done a tremendous effort, and - as you've noticed - the book is an enticing read, no matter what you think of it. So, I'll grant him that extra half star (rating 3.5 stars)

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

David Christian's book covers the entire history of the universe - the Big Bang to the universe's eventual descent into darkness - in 500 pages, laying out a text book of "big history." Big history is a response to a perception that history as a field has been becoming increasingly fragmented, as specialists veer off into their own corners and study minute details while the big picture often gets lost in the shuffle. It's a fair point.

Christian responds to this with a demand for synthesis, into what he refers to as a new 'creation myth.' His 500 pages include the Big Bang, the geological evolution on earth, the beginnings of life, and human evolution before jumping into the traditional contents of human history. It's very much a bird's eye view, tied together by the loose thematic thread that the universe keeps managing to produce complexity and order, even if it seems illogical and counter to the second law of thermodynamics. Also highlighted, especially in the work's second half, is the importance of language, communication, and networks of exchange to promote increased complexity and development.

It's a really fascinating read, and will give a nice introduction to lots of topics from astrophysics to biology to sociology. I'm a bit mixed on big history in general, though. General trends are helpful, and a wider view is often very much needed, but I do think that the details matter in human history and they're pretty absent here. It's a good book for an alternate perspective and a nice reminder that lots of factors are needed when accounting for historical change. But the connection between the Big Bang and the development of trade networks seems pretty loose, and I'm not sure it's all that helpful or necessary to study them in tandem. Christian is big on making metaphorical connections between the levels - the formation of cities paralleling the formation of stars and all that - but it never really develops fully. And I think for big history to have a lasting impact, it has to make a better case for how the study of all these different fields together is more helpful than studying them on their own.

[Kimba Tichenor · Rating 2 out of 5]

David Christian's provides an introduction to so-called Big History -- a type of history that the author defines as interdisciplinary in nature and one which seeks to find "an underlying unity beneath the various accounts of the past told in different historically oriented disciplines. Big History studies the past across physics, astronomy, geology, biology, and human history. As it does so, it seeks common themes, paradigms and methods..." Put differently, it endeavors to provide a modern, secular "creation story" based on scientific data to replace the mythic and religious "creation" narratives of the past that the author claims have lost their explanatory power in today's globalized world. In short, this book (and with it, Big History) could be described as a reactionary project -- a response to the global upsurge in fundamentalism in the early twenty-first century.

In lieu of a god or gods, it establishes science as a secular religion that can reconnect human history with the history of the universe. As such, like the grand master narratives of the nineteenth century, this book is more about the present than it is about the past -- despite its endless descriptions of dying stars and ice ages. And also like those past metanarratives, it is not free of ideological baggage. This ideological baggage becomes apparent in the book's omissions. It is a history devoid of any reference to slavery and how slavery provided the manpower (or "energy" to use the language of the book) that fueled the European and American industrial revolution. It is a history that includes no reference to the Holocaust or to the countless other genocides of the twentieth and twenty-first century (e.g. Pot Pol in Cambodia, 1975-79 and Rwanda in 1994). It is a history largely devoid of human agency and consequently also devoid of human atrocities.

If there is any truth to the maxim: "Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it," then this "history" is truly troublesome in its omissions. This is especially the case now that Bill Gates is providing massive funding for the push to teach "Big History" in US secondary schools. Given that several recent surveys have shown that a growing number of secondary and post-secondary students in the United States lack even a basic knowledge of the Holocaust and of slavery in the United States, it would seem gravely irresponsible to dilute the content of high school history courses even further. For example, in a 2018 survey of 1400 Americans by Schoen Consulting, 45 percent of US citizens between the ages of 18 and 34 could not name a single WWII concentration or extermination camp. Among that same age group, 66 percent had not heard of Auschwitz. Similarly, a survey of US high school students conducted by the Southern Poverty Law Center in 2017 found that only 8 percent of students could identify slavery as a central cause of the American Civil War, and two-thirds did not know that it took a constitutional amendment to put an end to slavery.

Given this ignorance of potentially avoidable human atrocities, it would seem a grave error to waste precious class time on natural forces (super nova and dying suns) over which humans have no control. A "history" text or course covering 13 billion years, in which human life makes no appearance until chapter 6 and the twentieth century is reduced to one chapter, is much ado about nothing. Rather than a history, it becomes a narrative of progress and technological advance aimed at defending the economic status quo (neoliberal capitalism), as it both fails to take into account the current system's origins in slave labor or the role of capitalism in producing the very ecological destruction of which the book is so critical.

[Alli · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was just glancing through the other comments as I finished reading this this morning, and there was one about how this was a well written book but it was obvious that the author wasn't Christian, and therefore was wrong/the commentator didn't agree with him because other books about "big history" have been written by Christians that fit the Biblical story and have "science" to back them up. To them I say, this book was not written to support the Christian/Creationism/Intelligent Design worldview. This book was written to explain, through the research and the science, what we know, right now, to be the history of us. Us the universe, us the planet, us the human race. Just because Christians believe that the world was created in 6 days, no more than ~6000 years ago, doesn't make it true. Christianity is not the only religion out there, is not the "right" religion (in that all others are wrong), and just because someone doesn't agree with the Christian world view does not make their world view any less relevant. The author's goal was not to prove that there was (or was not) in fact some deity out there who created the universe, whether the Judeo-Christian-Islamic Yehwa/God/Allah or the turtle who carried North America on it's back (the Iroquois creation myth) or Vishnu commanding Brahma to create the world.

Anyway, back to my review. I enjoyed this big picture look at history. After many school years learning about perhaps a 500 year span of history, it's easy to forget that there is so much more out there. Physics and astronomy classes give you the first chapter of this book, the creation of the universe, and museums generally give you the Neanderthal/early Homonines, and then, in the west at least, you get the Greek/Roman history on up to present, in some form or another, in school.

So often we get histories that are biased either to the European/American perspective or the Christian perspective, and I liked that, when he was looking at the modern human eras, he looked at all of it, be it Asia, Australia, America (continent, not country), not just Europe. There were times when he focused more on one area (Britain) than others, but then, if you look at the time period he was talking about, Britain was the major player.

Overall, a very good read, has made me interested in reading more about big history.

[Jamie Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

The edition of Maps of Time that I read was published in 2004, and I thought it needed a revision to update some information, and a better proofreader to check some of the author’s statements. For instance, when the book was written the estimated age of the universe was 13 billion years, but since then additional research has pushed that to 13.8 billion. Similarly, Homo erectus was once believed to have left Africa around 700,000 years ago, but in recent years remains have been found in China that are estimated to be 1.8 million years old. Also, before the text even begins, in the second paragraph of the first page of the Forward there is a glaring typo that made me wonder what else the proofreaders missed, where it says that the Earth was created 4.6 million years ago. Million. That does not inspire confidence. A new edition came out in 2011, so perhaps these problems have been fixed.

Nevertheless, the book’s basic science is solid, so if you don’t care how old the universe is there is a lot of good information, along with some memorable comments, such as “The physicist Richard Feynman illustrated the size of an atom by saying that if you blew up an apple until it was the size of the Earth, each of the atoms it was made from would now be the size of the original apple.” (p. 24) Also: “Black holes are so dense that to form one from our earth, we would have to crush it into a ball with a diameter of about 0.7 inches.” (p. 46)

Each section telescopes the timeline of the previous one. Thus, Part 1 starts with the Big Bang and moves to the formation of the Earth.

Part 2 picks up there and proceeds from the origins of life, discussing evolution and the biosphere, noting that “Carbon is critical because of its astonishing flexibility. Add hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, and sulfur and we can account for 99 percent of the dry weight of all living organisms.” (p. 95)

Part 3 covers the origins of humanity, beginning with our progenitors; “making stone tools requires precisely those skills that are the forte of the prefrontal cortex, that part of the brain that was to expand most significantly in human evolution.” (p. 160).

Part 4 moves through the Holocene era up to 1000 AD. In this section, as civilization gets a firm footing, the book shifts from its initial focus on physics, science, and evolution to economic history, which was interesting but seemed a rather abrupt transition. It includes subsection headings such as, “The postclassical malthusian cycle: before the fourteenth century” (p. 367)

Part 5 is the modern era to today, and Part 6 looks at the future.

In discussing the rise of civilization there is an interesting comment that I have not heard anywhere else. It is the idea that men assumed the tasks which would eventually become leadership roles simply because they were available to do them. While women were busy doing essential housework the men were just in the way. “That many leadership roles involved specialized tasks and skills explains why men occupied them more often than women, for men were less necessary within the household and had more opportunity to take up specialized tasks.” (p. 265)

I have an interest in communism in theory and practice, so I liked the book’s discussion of how it played out in the larger context of history. For instance, I think this comment does an excellent job summarizing some of the complex economic issues communist governments faced:

For a while – particularly in the 1930s, when the capitalist world itself was in crisis, and again in the 1950s – it seemed as if these new, state-managed structures might generate a dynamism to match that of capitalism. What they lacked in entrepreneurial flair they made up for in systematic commitment to high levels of education, in the introduction of modern technologies, and in the massive organizational capacity of powerful and ruthless states using modern technologies of communication. But in time their innovatory sluggishness, the same quality that had slowed innovation throughout the era of agrarian civilizations, ensured that they would fall behind their capitalist rivals in productivity levels, in innovation, and eventually in military capability. The wasteful habits of the construction phase proved hard to shake, and the Soviet command economy never managed to shift from resource-intensive to resource-economizing forms of growth; eventually, it ran out of resources. (p. 456)

Mikhail Gorbachev was a lifelong committed communist, but he understood how sick the Soviet economy had become in the 1980s, and decided that desperate times called for desperate measures. Trying to find a solution, he ended by summoning forces he could not control. “Gorbachev’s attempts to introduce a new dynamism by relaxing the grip of the planners on the economy and society ended in the collapse of the entire system. In the 1990s Russia had to start rebuilding capitalism, almost from scratch.” (p. 457)

The book also includes a sobering estimate of the effects of war on civilization:

Will Eckhardt has roughly calculated that 3.7 million people died in war in the 1,500 years up to 1500 CE. In the sixteenth century, he estimates that 1.6 million died in war; in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, 6.1 million and 7.0 million; and in the nineteenth century, 19.4 million. In the twentieth century war deaths reached 109.7 million, or almost three times the sum of all deaths in the preceding 1,900 years. (p. 458)

Finally, the book sums up with a look at the future, attempting to extrapolate the most likely outcomes based on current data. To me the most interesting, and sobering, comment is one concerning rising carbon levels in the atmosphere. Again, it was based on 2004 data: “Now CO2 levels have reached ca. 350 parts per million, or twice the levels during the ice ages. By 2150 they could nearly double again, to between 550 and 600, if present rates continue.” (p. 460) In fact, as of 2019 according to www.climate,gov, the levels had already risen to 409.8 ppm. According to the predictions at yaleclimateconnections.org, CO2 levels are projected to hit 550 by 2050, 700 by 2075, and 950 by 2100.

There is one odd affectation the author uses that I cannot account for. He uses the word “lifeway” a lot, perhaps a hundred times over the course of the book. It means, of course, “way of life,” and it is a real word, defined in the dictionary, but it is never used in normal speech and I do not remember ever reading it before. Every time I came across it there was a moment of dissonance, as if he had said forsooth or egads. Perhaps at the time he was writing the book there was a trend among scientists trying to get it accepted as part of ordinary speech, but if so, it did not work.

Overall, this is a good book, taking a different approach to big picture history than readers will find in most places. The author writes clearly and confidently, connecting the dots while consistently narrowing the focus from the origins of everything to life and times today and into the near future. I hope the new edition brought its research up to date, and that some intern did a search and replace on every instance of “lifeway.”

[Wesley Jackson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful, it sweeps from the origins of the universe to the very present, from the atomic to the cosmic, but never loses the perspective that grips you in tears of awe, tears that are not blinding but the birthing-sweat of sight itself

[Erisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Big History is a synthesis of knowledge from different scholarly disciplines that makes for one fascinating story about our universe. Most people will probably be familiar with a lot of the information in the book, but it’s when that information is put into a new contexts that you start seeing things differently, and that’s what I enjoyed the most. Also, I really enjoyed professor Christian’s explanation of the evolution of the universe, from the simplest structures to growing levels of complexity and organization, from quarks to stars to galaxies, from long carbon chains to living organisms and the biosphere, to human beings with brains capable of inventing language and science, of writing poetry and composing music, and filling their lives with symbolic meaning, and so on. There are no boundaries between philosophy and science and specific disciplines within science like, anthropology, sociology, psychology, history …. the facts of the cosmos don’t obey these boundaries we have created, which are very useful, of course, but can also hide information that is only visible from a bird’s eye view. Reality is one. If we want to know it better, we have to look at the big picture as a whole and Big History does a great job at that.

[Reagan Kuennen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Uh yeah…my brain hurts. I don’t think Big History is my speed. But I appreciated his concern for the depletion of resources!

[Chris Aldrich · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an interesting change of reference from a historical perspective combining cosmology, astronomy, geology, microbiology, evolutionary theory, archaeology, politics, religion, economics, and history into one big area of contiguous study based upon much larger timescales. Though it takes from many disciplines, it provides for an interesting, fresh, and much needed perspective on who humans are and their place in the world.

I'd highly recommend this to any general reader as early as they can find time to read through it, particularly because it provides such an excellent base for a variety of disciplines thereby better framing their future studies. I wish I had been able to read this book in the ninth or tenth grade or certainly at the latest by my freshman year in college.

This could be an extremely fundamental and life-changing book for common summer reading programs of incoming college freshman. I wish I could make it required reading for life in general.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

The history of the world in less than 510 pages, and starting with the Big Bang. Humans don't appear until around page 110. Still a very interesting book. Of course, he misses a lot of the high points of history. Instead, as he describes the the forces that created the universe, he surveys the forces that have created the world's cultures. Centering mostly on the economical, giving the book a somewhat Marxist feel.

It is an interesting contrast to the very specific studies of history. I read it because the historian William McNeil in his autobiography recommended it.

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Is the written historical record enough to explain the history of civilization? David Christian would argue that it isn't, Maps of Time is a condensed, single volume argument based on his introductory lectures on the topic of “Big History”. Big History as defined by Christian is the history of everything on the largest possible scale, from the beginning of the universe to its bitter end. By this definition Big History covers not only the written record, but also prehistory and even prehuman history. To begin his tour of Big History, Christian starts his introduction with the Big Bang and the evolution of the universe and solar system; slowly drilling down into smaller timescales to examine the formation and development of complex societies. The concluding chapters of Maps of Time speculates what is to come in the near future (100 years), the intermediate future (a few million years), and the distance future (billions of years) until the universe ultimately runs down. A large undertaking for any researcher looking to form a single coherent story of our past, present, and future based on empirical study rather than dogmatic ideas from the past.

Using a combination of modern science and up-to-date theories of history Christian aims to construct what he calls “a modern creation myth”. The author is an academic historian, so the science presented in the book is pretty basic and introductory, but he has made the effort to convey the material accurately and concise enough to be understood by the general public. The rest of the story (thesis) is really a series of snapshots and large-scale patterns throughout history. So, no one subject is covered in much detail. By looking at the large-scale patterns of history, Christian argues, that we are better able to understand how society has come into its current state of being. Something that is often missed when looking at specific events in history (i.e. the fall of Rome). What was really interesting about this, was that Christian choose to frame the story of human progress with all that it entails, in a creation myth. Although radically different from traditional creation myths, he is still seeking a way make sense of the complex world around us.

However, in contrast with most traditional creation stories, this modern creation myth does not view complex entities as better or worse than less complex entities. The story simply relates the increase in the level of complexity over the course of time. Complexity is just a consequence of progress, that for one reason or another is undertaken by a species or a society when faced with competition for resources. It's the differential progress throughout the world that has shaped our histories and fueled the present. The ebb and flow of time does not favor any particular culture. It is the choices and often competitive needs that ultimately controls the destiny of whole regions. As a consequence of this ever-increasing complexity have come unforeseen impacts to society and the environment, which leads to conflict, innovation, and transition from one social and political system to another. With each transition comes new interdependence and the need for new methods of organization.

In many ways Maps of Time is a successful re-telling of human history, in other ways many readers may find it disappointing. For me personally, the provided what I was looking for, a sense of the big picture, an outline and context to help me put things into a larger perspective. However, it fails on one crucial point as a modern creation myth. Early on the book Christian states that “creation myths provide universal coordinates within which people can imagine their own existence, and find a role in the larger scheme of things. Creation myths are powerful because they speak to our deep spiritual, psychic, and social need for a place and sense of belonging.” Christian is able to deliver a scientifically and historically accurate narrative of our basic history that fulfills our intellectual curiosity, but fails to satisfy our deep spiritual and social needs. Our species needs to feel as though we are privileged, that this oasis in space is special to us and to us alone. The cold facts of science and history destroy the self-centered notion that we are the center of the universe. For the a modern creation myth to be complete it needs to answer the question of where we belong on deeper philosophical and psychological reasons. Maybe that's too much to ask of just one book.

[Nancy Ellis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exciting approach to the study of history, taken all the way back to the beginning of the universe, basing the history of everything on increasing complexity leading up to modern society. THIS IS HOW HISTORY SHOULD BE TAUGHT!!! I read the book while watching the author's series of lectures on Big History for The Great Courses (formerly known as The Teaching Company......wonderful outfit, by the way). If science had been taught in this manner while I was in school, I most likely would not have spent my time avoiding as many science courses as possible! Approaching all disciplines -- cosmology, astronomy, physics, chemistry, biology, etc.-- with the idea that everything has a history and all history is connected gives a refreshing and exhilarating perspective on the study of human beings. I highly recommend this book, as well as the lecture series, as well as connecting to https://www.bighistoryproject.com.

[Toby · Rating 1 out of 5]

The idea of Big History sounds intriguing, but after reading most of this book (I admit I could not finish it --- I did not enjoy the writing style at all), I am unconvinced that it has anything much to offer that one cannot get from reading the basic source material alone. Indeed, the book feels to me like a very detailed summary of a bunch of introductory books in science, anthropology, and sociology.

I'd prefer a shorter, more focussed book that clearly emphasizes what is good and different about the big history approach.

[Ian Tymms · Rating 5 out of 5]

Monumental in every way. A tome to represent the entirety of history - from big bang to our possible future. Like all great historians, Christian, is a storyteller with his own set of motifs. The underlying exploration of history as evolving complexity was one such theme and his discussion of the dance between chaos and complexity in the appendix was fascinating. Looking at history as emergence in the language of complexity theory is new to me but makes good sense. Complexity theory is popping up everywhere...

[Dominic Simpson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a monumental work, and deserves much more credit (it still remains obscure).

[Victoria Hawco · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had to understand more math and physics than I would have liked, but what are you gonna do.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read for school.
Only had to read until pg 491 + Appendix 1.

[Terry Clague · Rating 4 out of 5]

You can't knock someone writing a history book covering 13 odd billion years - even if he does describe that as "a brief exuberant springtime" compared to an "inconceivably distant future".

"Big History" is a fairly new subdiscipline which attempts to describe historical development from the "big bang" onward. I'm not sure why this book (authored by a - ahem - big name in the "field") isn't just called big history - perhaps because the publishers were worried that readers would constantly say it in a Max Bygraves voice (a la BIG MONEY from Family Fortunes - very much the Pointless of its day).

There are various problems with the field and thus the book - the author discusses them in his introduction. A history graduate friend of mine told me that one of his essay questions was something like "Hobsbawm's 'Age of Revolution is more interesting for what it leaves out than what it includes. Discuss." and that's obviously a problem for big history - probably the main problem. Not necessarily events but perhaps emotions and impact - afterall, Hitler is said to have asked "who remembers the Armenians?".

Another predictable problem the book has to address is that in trying to cover so much, it runs the risk of becoming a running commentary - as Alan Bennett had Rudge say in History Boys, history is just "one fucking thing after another". These factors don't really prevent this from being an impressive work, but it's one on which it's very difficult to focus - effectively it's a bunch of short books stuck together and as such it's easy to scan in places.

Finally, there is a danger with this kind of venture that the reader can become overwhelmingly depressed. Faced with unimaginable lengths of time one often thinks "O what's the bloody point"*. Still, there's 150 pages of appendices and index which means one gets a beatiful feeling of achievement having read it when actually one has not needed to bother with a significant proportion.

* not least a thought-provoking section on Rapa Nui, a small island "discovered" in 1722 (now known as Easter Island) on which around 3,000 people lived in dreadful circumstances, reduced to petty battles over diminishing resources. Despite this pathetic existance, there is evidence that previous generations had lived relatively luxuriously but totally unsustainably with the consequence thatpopulation growth and consumption of resources, driven by political and economic competition, led to sudden environmental and social collapse.

[Jack · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book for parents.

Look, at some point your kid is going to ask you a whole series of brutally hard questions: "Dad, where did the universe come from?" "Dad, what made the moon?" "Dad, where did cows live before they lived on farms?" And, as a reasonably well educated Dad or Mom, you kind of think there is probably an answer out there, but it's hard to put your finger on it. This here is the book for you.

The book is unabashedly ambitious, and in just over 400 pages covers the entire history of the universe. Literally. The first chapter is about the Big Bang. Then a real nice chapter about galaxy formation and planet formation. Boom, next thing you know we are dealing with the molecular origins of life, with particular attention to bacteria and alternative energy sources. (Lots, possibly most, bacteria use chemical energy, not photosynthesis as their fundamental source! Hot vent life may be the norm, and plants the aberation, not vice versa. Who knew?) A few chapters later its the evolution of language, the order of domestication of plants and animals. Not long thereafter its trying to explain why the runt end of the Eurasian landmass suddenly figured out technological creativity and took over the whole globe.

Its really quite good. On the whole, the discussions are subtle and sophisticated -- broad-brush without being dumbed down. On the things I know pretty well, such as evolutionary theory, infectious diseases, and organizational economics, he gets the details right, which makes me feel pretty confident about the rest. There were about a million books in the notes I wanted to read.

The author asserts at the beginning that he is trying do get history to tell really big narratives -- creation myths for a society that wants its myths to be rooted in science. This book seems like a pleasant antidote to so much of the pedantry for which the Academy gets critiques. While I'm not sure his synthesis is right -- it leans a little too much on pop complexity theory for me -- I loved having to decide if I agreed with him or not. The book made me look up.

So, it's a little geeky, it's a little intimidating, but it's really very well written, and strongly rewards some good time on the couch. And it makes for way more fun conversation with the kids.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a massive survey of the history of people and the universe, this is very useful. Keep it on the shelf, skim through it every now and again. It is a great guide to the basic story that humans have put together in recent years about the big bang, the formation of the solar system, earth and the beginnings of life, and human history 101. Christian summarizes every chapter at its end, and puts a longer summary of the whole book at the very end, plus he has a little annotated bibliography for each chapter, so whatever time in the history of the galaxy interests you, well here are some other books you can read about that.
The only problem is, at the start of this book Christian says that his goal is to provide a 'modern creation myth' to help people find a sense of place in the universe. He sorta does that, but only if you read the summaries. He includes so much extra information in the body of the book, it's hard to read this as a modern creation narrative. He must feel the need to do this because there isn't really scientific consensus on the beginnings of life or on the big bang, but the people reading this book are not reading it because they want to debate the origins of life. The reader wants whatever thesis is the most convincing one we have right now. That would make things clearer here. And it would shorten a five hundred page book by a couple hundred pages.

[Will · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favourite books. Maps of Time is a fascinating history textbook. What makes this book unique is in the telling of history. Christian's approach is through an emerging academic discipline known as Big History. Christian examines the moment of the Big Bang to the present and uses a multi-disciplinary approach based on combining various scientific ideologies and the humanities. The Maps of Time recounts the events of a changing universe by employing astrophysics, particle physics, paleobiology, planetary geology, anthropology to name a few. When you think of telling this kind of story, it makes sense. Most historical books are slanted in one way or another.

For example: If you told the story of Madame Curie's work in uranium and told it from her perspective, no doubt it would have a strong physics slant because that's what she was – a physicist. But if you were to tell it from her doctor's point of view, it would have a strong medical slant. Combining these perspectives creates a much broader picture, giving us far more detail. Worth a read.

[Paul DiBara · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book does something I've been hoping to see for quite a while. It attempts to take the broad view of human development - going back to the beginning of the universe - to see what lessons or conclusions we might draw from such a survey. It's a combination of philosophy, science and history. What is the relation of humanity to the universe. I'm tempted to say that it explores the nature of reality but the scope isn't quite that broad. It takes a more holistic view of being than I've seen in anything I've read or watched in a long time.

There's no compelling unifying moral force, or myth, extant in today's world, outside of cults or dated religions that have lost much of their ability to explain the present world and our place, our purpose, in it. Studies like that presented in this book could be a step in the direction of a new philosophy that may extract some meaning from the splintered and fragmented world we live in. There have been periods in history like this before, times without a prevailing moral or ethical center.

[Federico Sosa Machó · Rating 4 out of 5]

Muy interesante exponente de lo que se ha dado en llamar "macrohistoria", y nunca mejor aplicado el término. El autor arranca su relato nada menos que en el origen del universo y llega hasta su probable final. Nada más ni nada menos. En ese recorrido nos pasea sucesivamente por diferentes disciplinas: la química y la física en los comienzos, la biología y la astronomía, para luego centrarse en la historia, la economía o la antropología. Es esta última parte la que más me gustó, especialmente porque se abandona cualquier etnocentrismo para abarcar a la humanidad toda, realizando comparaciones cuando la situación lo amerita. El comienzo y el final, siendo interesantes, resultan algo arduos para un lego en disciplinas a las que nos asomamos con dificultades. Adecuados resúmenes sintetizan lo sustancial de cada capítulo, al tiempo que una abundante bibliografía nos señala los caminos que conviene recorrer si se quiere profundizar en determinados temas. Como punto de partida, es un libro casi inmejorable.

[Ed · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best of the Big History books by far. Essential reading if you want to situate now in the long term history of the universe and of humanity. Extraordinarily well done and better by far than Harari and other Big History folks.

[Adrian · Rating 4 out of 5]

This brick of a book looks at human history from the widest most all encompassing lens possible. "Trying to look at the whole of the past is, it seems to me, like using a map of the world. No geographer would try to teach exclusively from street maps. Yet most historians teach about the past of particular nations, or even of agrarian civilizations, without ever asking what the whole of the past looks like" (Christian 5). This passage is a great descriptor for the authors idea of "big history" as used in the book. The book looks at human history as a species rather than focusing in so that no crucial context is lost. it provides a more honest look at human history. However it can lead to some concepts being hard to understand without the grounding affect of human stories.

[Martin Hernandez · Rating 4 out of 5]

La "Gran Historia" es quizá el proyecto más ambicioso emprendido por un historiador, tanto, que se necesita un libro de > 500 páginas... como ¡introducción!
Esta es una gran lectura, muy entretenida y accesible al menos hasta el capítulo 9, pues a partir del 10 empieza a ponerse un poco más técnico, desde el punto de vista de la economía de la innovación, y más denso, hasta el último capítulo, que trata sobre algunos futuros posibles, que también es muy interesante. Muy recomendable para que los aficionados a la historia que quieran verla desde una perspectiva diferente y global.

[Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

About as good of a "summary of everything" as I could ask for, with its central theme seemingly being the unlikely arising of order from disorder, from the cosmic scale to the sociological. I blasted through this dense book because the writing was clear and efficient without sacrificing rigor. Anyone interested in long-term patterns of history and science should read this, but be wary if in-depth analysis of a single incident or phenomenon is what you're looking for.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Essential framework to my intellectual life. Nowhere else to my mind has modern knowledge been canvassed so lucidly on such scale. What an outsized frame to hang so much of what we understand about our world! Admittedly such immense scaffolding is largely positivist, with its in-grown blind spots, but boy what a punch it packs. If you're looking for a modern synthesis of all human knowledge in expository form, this is it--eat your heart out.

[Christopher Byram · Rating 3 out of 5]

I first discovered this book when it was referenced on Khan Academy, in the article 'An Introduction to Big History', in Unit 1, in the course 'World History Project - Origins to the Present'. The article states that the author, Christian, coined the term "thresholds of increasing complexity", which identifies times when significant new forms of complex phenomena emerged.