The history of everything-from the beginning of the universe to the modern day-is the monumental story you explore in Big History: The Big Bang, Life on Earth, and the Rise of Humanity. Taught by award-winning Professor David Christian, this course offers you a unique opportunity to view human history in the context of the many histories that surround it. In 48 thought-provoking lectures, you traverse the sweeping expanse of cosmic history as seen through the conventional scale of history, the larger scales of biology and geology, and the universal scale of cosmology. With its awe-inspiring scope, Big History provides you with a new way to understand history and our place in the universe.
Big History: The Big Bang, Life on Earth, and the Rise of Humanity
InßBig History: The Big Bang, Life on Earth, and the Rise of Humanity, you'll hear this ever-evolving story-the history of everything-in its monumental entirety from the moment the Universe grew from the size of an atom to the size of a galaxy in a fracti
Rated 5 out of
5
by
PippaT from
A wonderful and accessible history of everything.
This is the best and most captivating series of lectures on 'big history' I have come across, drawing on many disciplines and uniting them to form a credible history of this planet and its inhabitants. I have listened to some of the lectures several times and never tire of David Christian's voice and teaching. I can't recommend this lecture series highly enough
Date published: 2024-12-18
Rated 2 out of
5
by
Man from Nouvelle Ecosse from
Dr Christian's Repetitive Big Bangs
I have currently completed the first thirty three lectures. With less verbal repetitions and "OKs" these lectures could have been reduced to less than twenty. The subject matter is indeed informative but Dr Christian has the annoying habit of saying the same things over and over again, not only in the same lecture, but in subsequent lectures as well.
Date published: 2024-10-02
Rated 5 out of
5
by
Chiara from
Amazing course offering a mind-opening perspective
The course embraces several disciplines and merges them into a new perspective. I highly recommend it to everyone, whatever your interests may be.
Some lessons may feel a bit slow, especially when talking about themes that one already knows. On the other hand, it is very useful for themes one has little familiarity with.
Date published: 2024-06-29
Rated 5 out of
5
by
the professor from
Big History: The Big Bang, Life on Earth, a Survey
It has been about 10 years since I first watched this lecture set, and it is a pleasure to be a part of. Dr. David Christian is very fluid, and communicates the diverse topics with ease and clarity. Learning from it a second time allows the learner to just ponder the complexity, synchronicity of events which led to our evolution and potential final destiny, if not sooner through our own poor choices. Very worth the investment from all aspects. I have watched over 1200 lecture sets since 2002, and value this course very much! Highly recommend it!
Date published: 2024-02-14
Rated 5 out of
5
by
nlee1040 from
Highly recommend
This course is fantastic. The professor is excellent and covers so much material focusing on big ideas and concepts that can be easily comprehended and at the same time inspire awe. Thank you.
Date published: 2023-09-17
Rated 5 out of
5
by
Aloha from
Totally new way to look at human history
I always felt that history should be connected with archeology, anthropology and linguistics. But I did not find any article or book that address my concern that human history did not suddenly jump start at the beginning of the written languages.
This course answers my long term wish to integrate all human knowledge into one long flow from the beginning of time to the end of time. Very satisfying course and it is well done.
Date published: 2023-07-09
Rated 5 out of
5
by
Mico from
Excellent
Very interesting and well done. He speaks slowly so I sped it up quite a bit. But what a wonderful and thoughtful speaker.
Date published: 2023-06-07
Rated 5 out of
5
by
George52 from
Connecting the Dots
This has to be the grandest connect the dots effort ever. From the beginning to the end of time. Engagingly presented. Emerging from my space and time machine, I have a new appreciation for where we have come from and where we may be headed. Well done.
Date published: 2023-03-30
Overview
About
Dr. David Christian is Professor of History at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. He earned a B.A. in History from Oxford University, an M.A. in Russian History from The University of Western Ontario, and a D.Phil. in 19th-Century Russian History from Oxford University. He previously taught at San Diego State University. Professor Christian's course on big history stems from an experimental history course he developed in the late 1980s with the help of colleagues in astronomy, geology, biology, anthropology, and prehistory. In addition to Maps of Time: An Introduction to Big History (which won the 2005 World History Association Book Prize), Professor Christian is the author of numerous works including This Fleeting World: A Short History of Humanity. Professor Christian is a member of the Australian Academy of the Humanities and the Royal Holland Society of Sciences and Humanities. He was one of the editors of the Berkshire Encyclopedia of World History and also participated in the creation of the world history website World History for Us All.
01: What Is Big History?
Is it possible to tell a story of everything, from the big bang up to the present day? This lecture introduces the background and unique aspects of this broad, multidisciplinary perspective on history....
32 min
02: Moving across Multiple Scales
Most history courses cover time spans of a few decades or a few centuries, but big history requires us to survey the past over scales that span billions of years. This lecture explores ways to become more familiar with the immense scales needed to cover the modern creation story....
30 min
03: Simplicity and Complexity
In this lecture, we introduce one of the unifying themes of the course: the development of increasing complexity since the creation of the Universe. Here, we'll examine the definition of complexity and ask how our Universe builds more complex entities....
30 min
04: Evidence and the Nature of Science
Why should we trust the claims of modern science about events in the distant past? This lecture lays some ground rules about evidence for proving scientific claims and describes how new dating techniques have allowed scientists to peer further back into the past than previously thought possible....
31 min
05: Threshold 1-Origins of Big Bang Cosmology
We encounter the first threshold of complexity-the creation of the Universe at the moment of the big bang-and explore the scientific evidence that allows us to piece together this ever-evolving story of creation....
31 min
06: How Did Everything Begin?
This lecture surveys the history of different ideas about the creation of the Universe, from Ptolemaic theories of an Earth-centered cosmos to the modern notion of a constantly expanding Universe....
30 min
07: Threshold 2-The First Stars and Galaxies
How did the Universe change from a cloud of dust to a constellation of stellar bodies? This lecture describes how gravity was fundamental in crossing the second threshold of the course: the creation of stars and galaxies from huge clouds of hydrogen and helium atoms....
31 min
08: Threshold 3-Making Chemical Elements
Stars created the preconditions for crossing a third threshold of complexity: the formation of chemical elements. As stars collapse and die, they fuse to create new atoms that are the building blocks of all the complex chemicals that make up our Earth....
30 min
09: Threshold 4-The Earth and the Solar System
With this lecture, we shift from the scale of the Universe to that of our solar system. Here we examine the processes by which planets and solar systems are created and the evidence that helps us piece together this part of the story....
29 min
10: The Early Earth-A Short History
The tumultuous early history of the Earth is presented in this lecture, including the development of our planet's internal layers, the generation of its magnetic field, the creation of the first seas, and the appearance of its early atmosphere....
31 min
11: Plate Tectonics and the Earth's Geography
In this lecture, we examine the history of the Earth's surface and learn how the notion of our planet as fixed and unchanging was eventually overturned by a new vision of the Earth's crust as broken into plates that are constantly on the move....
31 min
12: Threshold 5-Life
With the consideration of the next threshold of complexity, life, we develop a definition of life itself, and begin to consider how life-forms adapt and change over time....
30 min
13: Darwin and Natural Selection
In On the Origin of Species, Charles Darwin revealed a new story: an account of how all living species change and adapt. This lecture recounts how Darwin arrived at his revolutionary theory, and how he shared his ideas with contemporaries who were making similar breakthroughs....
31 min
14: The Evidence for Natural Selection
In this lecture, we examine the various kinds of evidence Darwin used to establish his theory of natural selection, including the fossil record, similarities among species, and the geographic distribution of species. We also review modern evidence of natural selection....
31 min
15: The Origins of Life
How was life first created from non-life? Modern biologists tell a complex story of the creation of life which involves the development of organic matter from simpler molecules such as amino acids, nucleic acids, sugars, and proteins.
31 min
16: Life on Earth-Single-celled Organisms
Here, study the first four (out of eight) major evolutionary transitions, embracing the first 3 billion years of the Earth’s history, a period in which all living organisms consisted of single cells.
29 min
17: Life on Earth-Multi-celled Organisms
The fusion of single-celled organisms into larger, multi-celled organisms c. 600 million years ago marked a turning point in the development of life forms on this planet. In this lecture, we focus on the evolution of multi-cellular organisms, tracing four evolutionary steps leading to our own species, Homo sapiens....
31 min
18: Hominines
How did modern humans evolve from ape-like ancestors? This lecture surveys the evolution of primates and great apes, and then traces the adaptive development of hominines, a group of bipedal primates that appeared in Africa 7 million years ago....
30 min
19: Evidence on Hominine Evolution
To construct the story of hominine evolution, scientists rely on three kinds of evidence: archaeological evidence, evidence based on the study of modern primates, and evidence based on genetic comparisons between modern species of primates, including ourselves....
31 min
20: Threshold 6-What Makes Humans Different?
Human beings represent a new threshold of complexity in the story of life on Earth. In this lecture, we examine two things that make us unique: use of symbolic language and collective learning....
31 min
21: Homo sapiens-The First Humans
Does the archaeological record reveal when the first members of our species appeared? In this lecture, we examine evidence from the Stone Age and consider several theories of the early history of the first humans....
31 min
22: Paleolithic Lifeways
Using remains left behind by our ancestors and studies of modern societies that still use stone technologies, modern researchers have constructed a portrait of the Paleolithic way of life. In this lecture, we enter into this world and learn what life was like for our distant ancestors....
31 min
23: Change in the Paleolithic Era
Change was gradual over the course of the long Paleolithic era, but there were some significant shifts that altered lifeways for human beings. These include climate changes during two ice ages, the rise of various technological innovations, and adaptive migration to nearly all parts of the globe....
32 min
24: Threshold 7-Agriculture
The appearance of agriculture set human history off in entirely new directions by increasing human control of food, energy, and other resources. The development of agriculture brings about changes in the environment and lays the foundation for the development of more complex human societies....
30 min
25: The Origins of Agriculture
Why, after 200,000 years of foraging, should human communities in quite different parts of the world take up agriculture almost simultaneously? In this lecture, we explore the different factors leading to this innovation....
30 min
26: The First Agrarian Societies
Although early agrarian societies left behind no written record, there is evidence of many important new developments during this period. Here, we explore the lifeways of these societies, and question whether agriculture meant the early farmers lived better than their forager ancestors....
32 min
27: Power and Its Origins
Approximately 5,000 years ago, the human species saw the rise of a new form of social organization: the first "tribute-taking" states. We begin our consideration of these states by asking how power is defined and what forms it takes....
30 min
28: Early Power Structures
How did humankind move from kinship clans and small agricultural villages to enormous centralized societies? This lecture surveys the archaeological and anthropological evidence used to reconstruct the evolution of power structures and theorizes how these larger societies took shape....
31 min
29: From Villages to Cities
This lecture introduces the 5,000 years of human history that were dominated by the huge and powerful societies: agrarian civilizations. With the development of writing, we get the first era of recorded history....
32 min
30: Sumer-The First Agrarian Civilization
How did the buildup of human and material resources during the early Agrarian era lead to the development of the first tribute-taking states and the first real cities? Here, we'll examine one of the earliest agrarian civilizations, Sumer in southern Mesopotamia, to learn how these new developments arose....
33 min
31: Agrarian Civilizations in Other Regions
How typical was Sumer of agrarian civilizations in general? This lecture briefly surveys six different areas where agrarian civilizations appeared early, including northeastern Africa, northern India, China, and the Americas....
31 min
32: The World That Agrarian Civilizations Made
Despite the limited contact among them, early agrarian civilizations the world over shared many features. In this lecture, we'll examine these features and speculate why agrarian societies seem to develop along similar lines despite regional differences....
32 min
33: Long Trends-Expansion and State Power
In this lecture, we begin to take the long view of agrarian civilizations, marking two trends that occurred during the course of 4,000 years: the expansion of civilizations to cover larger regions and incorporate more people, and the increasing power and reach of their rulers....
31 min
34: Long Trends-Rates of Innovation
Agrarian civilizations were able to expand because they developed new ways to extract resources and manage populations. This lecture examines how features such as population growth, commerce, and tribute-taking states helped encourage innovation....
31 min
35: Long Trends-Disease and Malthusian Cycles
Throughout human history, we see periods of innovation, population growth, increasing trade and urbanization, political expansion, and cultural efflorescence. Then, sometimes quite suddenly, there is a crash. In this lecture, we examine the factors that contribute to this cycle of boom and crash, referred to as the Malthusian cycle....
29 min
36: Comparing the World Zones
The previous two lectures describe factors that both stimulated and limited growth in the era of agrarian civilizations in Afro-Eurasia, the largest of the four world zones of human history. Here, we begin to question whether these same features and processes appear in American, Australasian, and Pacific zones....
31 min
37: The Americas in the Later Agrarian Era
In this lecture, we see that American agrarian civilizations experienced many of the same developments as those in Afro-Eurasia, but these developments appeared much later and never spread as far as in other world region....
31 min
38: Threshold 8-The Modern Revolution
In the last millennium, the pace of change accelerated sharply and decisively. Since then, humankind has experienced a number of astonishing changes, including accelerating innovation, the formation of larger and more complex societies, the integration of the four world zones, and the growing human impact on the biosphere....
31 min
39: The Medieval Malthusian Cycle, 500-1350
This lecture describes the medieval Malthusian cycle, which lasted from the decline of the Roman and Han Empires to the time of the Black Death. We will focus on Afro-Eurasia, the largest and most significant of the four world zones, and the region that drove change in the early stages of the Modern Revolution....
29 min
40: The Early Modern Cycle, 1350-1700
During the Early Modern cycle, for the first time in human history, the four world zones became linked through global exchange networks which stimulated both commerce and capitalism. Yet for other world zones, these changes were catastrophic, bringing disease and population collapse....
29 min
41: Breakthrough-The Industrial Revolution
By 1700, many elements of modernity seemed to be in place, yet global rates of innovation remained slow. This lecture describes the breakthrough to modernity after 1700, focusing on one country, Britain, where the transformation has been studied most intensively....
32 min
42: Spread of the Industrial Revolution to 1900
Within just two centuries, industrialization had transformed the entire world. No earlier transformation in human history had been so rapid or so far-reaching. This lecture describes the impact of industrialization before 1900....
31 min
43: The 20th Century
In this lecture, we examine the hallmark events of the 20th century, including major worldwide wars, two waves of innovation, huge population growth, and an enormous surge in energy use....
33 min
44: The World That the Modern Revolution Made
In this lecture, we attempt to describe, as we did for Paleolithic and agrarian societies, the lifeways of the Modern era. What emerges is a portrait of a single, world-spanning community of more than 6 billion people supported by ever-increasing technological innovation....
32 min
45: Human History and the Biosphere
How has our increasing power over the natural world affected our relationship to planet Earth? Are we becoming a malignant presence within the biosphere, driving other species to extinction and impacting global climactic systems in unpredictable ways?...
32 min
46: The Next 100 Years
After surveying 13 billion years, can we resist peering into the future? We take a tantalizing glimpse into speculations about which historic trends may continue into the next century....
31 min
47: The Next Millennium and the Remote Future
Our speculations into future developments continue with an examination of several theories about what life will be like 1,000 years in the future. Then we'll jump even further ahead, with scientific theorization about the ultimate fate of the Universe....
30 min
48: Big History-Humans in the Cosmos
In the final lecture of this course, we pause to ask some fundamental questions about meaning: What is the place of human beings in the Universe? Are we, perhaps, the only creations of the Universe that have consciousness?...
33 min
