Big History is a discreet field of historical study that arose in the late 1980s. It examines history on a large scale across long time frames through a multi-disciplinary approach.

What is Big History?

Big History is looking at the past on all time scales, from the Big Bang to modernity, looking for common themes and patterns. It uses a multi-disciplinary approach from the latest findings in biology, astronomy, archeology, anthropology, etc..

Big History arose out of desire to go beyond the specialized fields that emerged in the 20th century and grasp history as whole looking for common themes across the entire timescale of history. The study of history is typically limited to the written word, yet this only encompasses the past 5000 years or so and leaves out the vast majority of history. Big History examines the links between different fields of study and weaves a common narrative along thematic lines.

Historiography

The first classes taught on Big History were experimental by John Mears in the late 1980s at Southern Methodist University (Dallas, Texas) and David Christian at Maquarie University (Australia) and more recently at San Diego State University. Since then a number of other universities have offered similar courses. Southern Methodist University, often known by its abbreviation of SMU, is a private university in University Park, Texas, USA, located in the heart of Dallas. ... Dr. David Gilbert Christian (born 1946) was born in Brooklyn, New York, of British and American parents. ... A landmark architecture featured in the school logo. ...

The first book on Big History was written by Fred Spier in 1996 called The Structure of Big History: From the Big Bang until Today which offers an ambitious defense of the project and constructs a unified account of history across all time scales.

As of 2005 the essential text on Big History is David Christian's Maps of Time: An Introduction to Big History which explores history from the first micro-seconds of the Big Bang and the creation of the solar system, to the origins of life on earth, the evolution of humans, the agricultural revolution, modernity and the 20th century. He examines large-scale patterns and themes, and provides perspective of time scales.

See also

• World History - a discreet field of historical study that uses similar techniques.

For the Mel Brooks movie of similar name see History of the World, Part I. For the Avalon Hill board game, see History of the World (board game). ...

References

• David Christian (2004). Maps of Time: An Introduction to Big History. ISBN 0520235002
• John Mears (1996). The Structure of Big History: From the Big Bang until Today. ISBN 9053562206