You'll have to bear with me if you're already familiar with all of this because, as six months ago (thanks to my introduction via Jonathon Dallimore), I have become quite tragically in love with the historiographical approach that has been endearingly dubbed 'Big History'.
I read Maps of Time by David Christian and just as the Foreword promised (with some apparent degree of hyperbole), it blew my mind in sufficient manner. I'm not about to say, "Let's abandon all other historical approaches" but the whole idea of looking at history in the broadest possible context spoke to me. I guess it appealed to the part of me that resents the seemingly undefeatable presence of Eurocentrism that has sculpted the world's history 'canon'. Christian's view is one that combines scientific disciplines with philosophy and history to determine universal patterns that apply to both humanity and the growth of celestial objects.
At first, I found the idea of establishing similarities between the formation of stars and the formation of human civilisations a bit... tenuous and pointlessly esoteric. But I stuck with it! And after I read about these things in much more detail it all became more enlightening, and made me think of human history in a completely different way; which was the whole point.
As I read Maps of Time, which is Christian's bible for the 'Big History' approach to history, I made some notes.
These notes became hideously extensive.
Like, 47 A4 pages of notes.
When I was done, I knew that I couldn't just hand these notes over to my Extension History students. It was too long. I did, however, come to a much better understanding of the concepts by taking these notes, so I don't regret it. I'd do it again!
I thought I could still use these notes for this blog, so I'll be going to go through the concepts of the book in a few separate blogs in the future.
I'll leave you with this quote from one of the book's two appendices.
At first, I found the idea of establishing similarities between the formation of stars and the formation of human civilisations a bit... tenuous and pointlessly esoteric. But I stuck with it! And after I read about these things in much more detail it all became more enlightening, and made me think of human history in a completely different way; which was the whole point.
As I read Maps of Time, which is Christian's bible for the 'Big History' approach to history, I made some notes.
These notes became hideously extensive.
Like, 47 A4 pages of notes.
When I was done, I knew that I couldn't just hand these notes over to my Extension History students. It was too long. I did, however, come to a much better understanding of the concepts by taking these notes, so I don't regret it. I'd do it again!
I thought I could still use these notes for this blog, so I'll be going to go through the concepts of the book in a few separate blogs in the future.
I'll leave you with this quote from one of the book's two appendices.
"Being complex creatures ourselves, we know from personal experience how hard it is climb the down escalator, to work against the universal slide into disorder, so we are inevitably fascinated by other entities that appear to do the same thing. Thus this theme - the achievement of order despite, and perhaps with the aid of, the second law of thermodynamics [entropy] - is woven through all parts of the story told here. The endless waltz of chaos and complexity provides one of this book's unifying ideas".For more about Big History, go to the Big History Project online.
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