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

Lecture 35: Long Trends—Disease and Malthusian Cycles

Christian, Maps of Time, chap. 10.

Fernandez-Armesto, The World, chaps. 4, 8, 14.

Mann, 1491.

McNeill, Plagues and Peoples.

1. What forces inhibited innovation in the era of Agrarian civilizations?


2. Why did Malthusian cycles play such a dominant role in the history of
   all Agrarian civilizations?

Essential Reading

Supplementary Reading

Questions to Consider