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Maps of Time: An Introduction to Big History, by David Christian
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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.
- Sales Rank: #279039 in Books
- Brand: Brand: University of California Press
- Published on: 2011-10-03
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.00" h x 1.60" w x 6.00" l, 1.80 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 672 pages
- Used Book in Good Condition
From Publishers Weekly
San Diego State University historian Christian is one of the founding figures of the "Big History" movement. His basic premise is that to truly make sense of human history, history must be integrated with virtually all other disciplines-and in order to do this correctly, historians must reach back to the beginning of time. It is becoming fairly well accepted for historians to draw on biology, economics, environmental studies and politics as well as a host of other fields of study, and Christian does a very nice job of explaining the factors that led to the rise of states, the industrial revolution and the information revolution, as well as looking at future possibilities for humankind. What is far less successful is his integration of cosmology, astrophysics and evolutionary biology with the basic fare usually associated with historical analysis. Rather than using the cosmological principles associated with the Big Bang, for example, to demonstrate "underlying unity and coherence" in all systems across time, Christian leaves the reader with a weak metaphor and limited insight. By attempting to cover all of the universe's 13 billion years in a single volume, even one approaching 600 pages, Christian is forced to use such a broad brush that readers will find much of this book to be fairly superficial. 45 b&w illus., 9 maps.
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Review
"No work in this genre [macro-history] is better than David Christian's Maps of Time: An Introduction to Big History.... [I]t is a brilliantly executed act of provocation." - The Times "Forges bold and ingenious connections between the physical and social sciences." - The Age "A good read, a fascinating prospectus for a new kind of history." - American Scientist"
From the Inside Flap
"You've all seen the poster of the milky way galaxy with an arrow to a point about halfway out from the center and the caption, ‘You are here.’ This book is like that only more so. It locates the human experience in the entirety of space-time."—Alfred Crosby, author of Ecological Imperialism: The Biological Expansion of Europe, 900-1900
Most helpful customer reviews
86 of 89 people found the following review helpful.
An ambitious and well-written book
By Alan Roe
David Christian's Map's of Time might bare the standard for non-parochial academic scholarship for years to come. Starting with the "big bang," Christian charts history from the beginning of the universe to the 21st century by drawing parallels between astronomical, biological, and historical phenomena. While the ambitious scope of this project might prove misguidedly off-putting to the narrow academic specialist (which certainly includes most academics), Christian deserves credit for painting a broad picture amidst an academic culture that prizes knowing more about less.
No one, even Christian, could possibly claim expertise in all the fields that this book traverses. Appropriately and refreshingly, rather than obscuring their works in the footnotes, Christian gives credits to the works of experts whose arguments he draws from within the main text. With a work of this scope, such credit is necessary often. Christian does not use much primary source material, which, again, will make professional historians question the work's greater relevance. But as he states in the introduction, while less accepted in academia, synthesizing information is often as important a task as discovering and presenting new information. This approach is more appealing for many intellectually engaged individuals who do not have the time or energy to keep up with the cutting edge of narrowly defined fields. If academics do not embrace such broader interdisciplinary projects then writers with less scholarly discipline will find eager audiences.
Without much prior knowledge of astronomical jargon, I found Christian's explanation of the big bang, quasars, black holes, star formation, the basic laws of gravitation, and many other complex astronomical phenomena both accessible and fascinating. His coverage of the controversies surrounding precise dating of human ancestors is exhaustive and his explanation of human evolution is cogent. As a historian, however, I think he probably dedicates too much time to these two sections (nearly half of the text).
From the agricultural to the industrial revolution, Christian stresses the interaction between different civilizations or "global zones" of influence as the primary dynamic in history, at least in Africa/Asia/Europe. This methodology illuminates the importance of interaction between civilizations and attempts to display the parochialism of studying "western" or "eastern" civilization in isolation. In this vein, this book responds to the increasing importance of globalization and the subsequent push in the academy and secondary schools for "world history." Yet while this might be an effective approach to analyzing dissemination of technology, the transmission of disease, and the integration of economies, it leaves much to be desired in the way of ideology and world views, which undoubtedly shapes history.
With the coming of the industrial revolution and the emergence of the nation state, Christian shifts his focus to Europe and eventually America. This focus is appropriate given that, for better or for worse, western nations have shaped most of history for the past two centuries. Christian's analysis of the environmental degradation that resulted from industrial nation states past and continuing attempts to consume more in the twentieth century is particularly powerful. Through extensive use of statistics, he shows that the current rate of population increases and consumption is unsustainable. This is not new news but putting this within a broad panorama of history goes a long way towards showing us just how profligate our society is. Ultimately, it makes Christian's speculation on possible futures especially relevant.
All told, this book is well-written, imaginative, and cogent. Realize, however, that Christian is not an expert in all these fields and will not leave readers with more specialized knowledge satisfied with his coverage of their areas of specialization.
102 of 110 people found the following review helpful.
Re: the 2011 edition, a mild Caveat Emptor
By Working Woman
I bought the prior 2004 edition some time ago, and finally got around to reading it, only to recognize that since the book was initially published, while many of the basic outlines of "big history events" such as theories regarding the origins of the Universe haven't changed, some of the details have. This is due to research conducted in the interim, as for example, in relation to findings from the Hubble telescope. I therefore considered buying the 2011 version, instead of trolling through the 2004. But careful scrutiny of the 2011 edition revealed that the 2011 version is in essence a re-issue, rather than the kind of thorough-going revision that I was hoping for. The author essentially admits this in the Preface when he notes that just 3 areas were revised, one of which has to do with the development of the academic field of Big History. I'm sure the latter will be of interest to some readers, but probably not to the run-of-the-mill lay reader. A look through the reference list at the end of the book confirms that this is essentially a re-issue--many of the references date from the mid-1990s into the early 2000's, but not beyond. I'm therefore recommending that if interested, readers should buy the initial edition, which I'm sure is now probably a little less expensive than this one. And with regard to the 2004 edition, I have started reading it, but will be reading other books besides to address some of the points where it is a bit out-dated or where more details would be helpful.
73 of 78 people found the following review helpful.
Maps of Time
By Sean Brocklebank
Weaknesses of the book
-The cosmology section assumes a very low level of knowledge about the subject, and will not be terribly interesting to those who have read more detailed accounts.
-The part of the book covering human civilizations, meanwhile, assumes a great deal of foreknowledge about the details of history (Christian provides virtually no discussion of the rise or fall of particular empires or political systems), making the text rather less useful to those without a reasonable knowledge of world history in the last 3,000 years.
-Christian's use of scientific terms and statistics can be at times misleading (though this may be unintentional). For example, when comparing rich countries to poor countries, Christian uses data unadjusted for differences in purchasing power, thus greatly amplifying the magnitude of income gaps. And again when emphasizing the rise of the multinational corporation, Christian compares the total market value of large corporations to the annual GDPs of nations, thus increasing the apparent size of the corporations.
-Finally, Christian seems at times unreasonably defensive of Marx and critical of free markets, at one point bemoaning that "Sadly, the Communist revolutions of the twentieth century suggest that overthrowing capitalism may be an extremely destructive project." (478). Why is that sad? Why does "Communism" begin with a capital "C" while "capitalism" does not? I may be nitpicking here, but he goes on like this for some time (incidentally, and perhaps only coincidentally, Christian has his doctorate in Russian history).
Strengths of the book
-The dustjacket is really nice. That may be trivial, but boy does this tome look good on a bookshelf.
-The book really does cover a lot of ground, going from the dawn of the universe through all of human history, rounding off with predictions which extend right through to the death of the last stars and the ultimate victory of thermodynamics' second law.
-Every chapter ends with a recommended reading list which is alone almost worth buying the book for.
-The writing style is at times irresistible; I could scarcely put down the book to relieve myself in pages 335-440 about the rise of the modern period.
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