Big History: The Big Bang, Life on Earth, and the Rise of Humanity

Lecture 1: What Is Big History?

Threshold 7 is the appearance of agriculture (about 11,000 years ago).

Agriculture accelerated the pace of change, leading to the emergence

of larger and more complex societies and introducing the Agrarian era of

human history.

Threshold 8 is the “Modern Revolution,” the vast social, economic, and

cultural transformations of recent centuries that introduced the Modern era

of human history and created today’s world.

The concluding parts of the course look to the future of humans, of the Earth,

and of the Universe. They also offer an overview of the entire course.

Here are some of my more important objectives in this course.

x I hope you will ¿ nd this huge journey exhilarating.

x I hope you will gain a clear understanding of the overall shape of

this modern origin story.

x I hope you will gain a better sense of the underlying unity of modern

knowledge. Ŷ

Christian, “The Case for ‘Big History.’”

———, Maps of Time, Introduction.

Christian, “World History in Context.”

Essential Reading

Supplementary Reading