"Big History" places the human past within the history of life, the Earth, and the Universe. In doing so, this emerging field of historical study provides us with an overview of the known past in its entirety, from the beginning of time until the present day. In Big History and the Future of Humanity, Spier presents a simple theoretical approach that not only makes big history accessible, but reveals what the future may hold for humanity.
This original new approach interprets big history as the history of the rise and demise of complexity in all its myriad forms, from the greatest galaxy clusters to the tiniest sub-atomic particles. While focusing on energy flows through matter and the circumstances that produce complexity, the author traces the emergence and decline of all the major forms of complexity that have existed, including human societies and their products. Breathtaking in scope, Big History and the Future of Humanity offers provocative new insights into the origins anddevelopment of life and serves as an invitation to ponder humans' place in the cosmos in a fascinating new way.
This original new approach interprets big history as the history of the rise and demise of complexity in all its myriad forms, from the greatest galaxy clusters to the tiniest sub-atomic particles. While focusing on energy flows through matter and the circumstances that produce complexity, the author traces the emergence and decline of all the major forms of complexity that have existed, including human societies and their products. Breathtaking in scope, Big History and the Future of Humanity offers provocative new insights into the origins anddevelopment of life and serves as an invitation to ponder humans' place in the cosmos in a fascinating new way.
"Spier takes us one important step forward in making big history accessible to all. I look forward to the next, more fully illustrated and documented, step in this process." (Journal of World History, 1 August 2012
"This is a deep and important book that promises to send scholars in many different fields off on new paths in search of a grand unified theory of history." (Journal of Global History, 2011)
"Personally, I think everyone should have access to this story, and I would put it at the heart of the national curriculum as well." (The Times Higher Education, September 2010)
"This is a deep and important book that promises to send scholars in many different fields off on new paths in search of a grand unified theory of history." (Journal of Global History, 2011)
"Personally, I think everyone should have access to this story, and I would put it at the heart of the national curriculum as well." (The Times Higher Education, September 2010)