Maps of Time: An Introduction to Big HistoryUniversity of California Press, 2011 - 642 sider 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. |
Innhold
FIGURES | 1 |
A Modern Creation Myth? | 2 |
LLUSTRATIONS | 16 |
Origins of the Universe | 17 |
TABLES | 27 |
The Beginnings | 39 |
Origins and History of the Earth | 57 |
The Origins of Life and the Theory of Evolution | 79 |
1O Long Trends in the Era of Agrarian Civilizations | 283 |
O 1 Models of different types of exchange networks | 292 |
Chronology of early agrarian civilizations | 294 |
Teotihuacán | 301 |
Areas of AfroEurasia within agrarian civilizations | 305 |
and the environment | 311 |
O 5 Areas ruled by particular states and empires | 317 |
Approaching Modernity | 335 |
The Evolution of Life and the Biosphere | 107 |
The Evolution of Humans | 139 |
The evolution of stone tools over 2 5 million years | 161 |
The Beginnings of Human History | 171 |
Intensification and the Origins of Agriculture | 207 |
Cities States and Civilizations | 245 |
Globalization Commercialization and Innovation | 364 |
Birth of the Modern World | 439 |
Futures | 467 |
and Timelines | 493 |
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