The little book of big history : the story of life, the universe and everything /
Ian Crofton and Jeremy Black.
- London : Michael O'Mara Books Limited, 2016.
- 272 pages : illustrations, maps ; 18 cm.
Includes index.
Part One: Setting the Scene -- Timeline -- In the Beginning -- The birth and death of the stars -- The Goldilocks zone -- The restless Earth -- Shaping the surface -- What is life? -- Where does the energy come from? -- Life gets complicated -- How life carries on -- The origin of species -- The blueprint of life -- Part Two: Animal Planet -- Timeline -- The first animals -- Life comes ashore -- The age of the dinasours -- Mass extinctions -- The coming of the mammals -- Where do we come from? -- Part Three: Human Start to Dominate -- Timeline -- Humans past and present -- What makes humans human? -- Culture -- How humans populated the world -- The impact of the ice -- From scavenger to hunter -- Fire -- Hunter-gatherer technologies -- Language -- Kinship -- Early religion -- The beginning of art -- Shelter -- Clothing -- Pottery -- The first farmers -- Domesticating animals -- Putting animals to work -- The wheel -- Nomads -- From stone to bronze -- From bronze to iron -- Part Four: Civilization -- Timeline -- Early trade routes -- The birth of cities -- Transport -- From barter to money -- Paper money -- Credit, debt and investment -- Writing -- Law -- Ancient empires -- Why empires fall -- Polytheism and monotheism -- Epics -- Writing history -- The nature of reality -- What is the good life? -- The beginnings of science -- Disease pandemics -- Europe in transition -- Land, labour and power -- Clashes of civilizations -- Part Five: The Rise of the West -- Timeline -- Renaissance and Reformation -- The long road to toleration -- Printing -- The Scientific Revolution -- Europe expands -- The Enlightenment -- The Industrial Revolution -- The Agricultural Revolution -- The social contract -- From mercantilism to free-market capitalism -- Nationalism and the nation -- Urbanization -- Expanding horizons -- The peak of imperialism -- Trade unions, socialism and communism -- Part Six: The Modern World -- Timeline -- Modernism in the arts -- Towards gender equality -- Revolutions in science -- Fighting disease -- The road to world war -- Industrialized slaughter -- Versailles and its outcomes -- Revolutions -- World economic collapse -- Totalitarianism -- Total war -- Genocide -- The nuclear age -- The Cold War -- Life after the Cold War -- The information revolution -- The promise of bioscience -- Internationalism, globalization and the future of the nation-state -- Population -- Migration -- Economic developments -- Environmental problems -- The future of humanity -- The fate of the universe
A fresh, new look at history which charts billions of years of development from the Big Bang to the present day, taking in a range of disciplines including cosmology, archaeology and religion. Includes line illustrations, maps and diagrams throughout. From the Big Bang to the future of our planet, The Little Book of Big History divides history into manageable but comprehensive time frames, encompassing the cosmos, the stars, life and everything in between. Big History is the attempt to understand and condense the entire story of the cosmos, from the Big Bang to the current day. Combining methods from history, astronomy, physics and biology to draw together the big story arcs of how the universe was created, why planets formed and how life developed, this creates a unique perspective from which to understand the place of mankind in the universe. Excited by the alternative 'framework for all knowledge' that is offered by this approach, Bill Gates is funding the Big History Project, which aims to bring the subject to a wider audience around the world. The Little Book of Big History breaks down the main themes of Big History into highly informative and accessible parts for all readers to enjoy. By giving a truly complete timeline of world events, this book shines a whole different light on history as we learned it and makes us think of our history - and our future - in a very different way.