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Big History I Intro The History of Everything: Big History! Welcome to Big History! Dr. Craig Benjamin Grand Valley State University Bright Horizons 19 Lecture 1 Welcome! • Everything that exists has a history: each person, plant, animal and object, our county, planet, the enre universe • Big history weaves evidence from many disciplines into a single origin story – one that explores who we are, how we got here, how we are connected to everything around us, and where we may be heading • This knowledge encourages each of us to consider our place in the global world of the 21st century, and to think of how we might contribute to the future of that world • Welcome to the big history of everything! Presenter: Dr. Craig Benjamin But most of all loves hiking in the high mountains of the world!! • Professor of History, Meijer • Recorded for History Honors College, GVSU Channel, and The Teaching (Michigan) Company • Jazz musician for 25 years • Current President of the before becoming an academic World History Association • Author of many articles, • Chair of AP World History chapters and books on ancient Development Committee Central Asia, big history, and • Teaching and writing about historiography big history for 20 years! • Approach was devised in 1989 by How I Became David Christian, (Macquarie Involved with Big University, Sydney) History • I was David’s TA in the 1990s; taught BH in Australia for 8 years • And at GVSU since 2003, so almost 20 years! • Now hundreds of big historians and BH courses being taught all Big historians at the KT in Italy, August 2010 round the world L-R: Christian, Alvarez, Benjamin, Rodrigue Brown, Spier (with son Louis), Gustafson State of the Field Today • Big history is in the news! - Text book by Chris<an, Brown, Benjamin – Big History: Between Nothing and Everything – published by McGraw-Hill 2013 - History Channel just finished showing a 17- episode series on big history on their H2 network - Bill Gates Big History Project released to the public in 2013 - Interna<onal Big History Associa<on formed in 2012 (CB Treasurer) Program for the Series • Lecture 1: What is Big History and Why does it MaVer • Lecture 2: Big History of the Universe, Stars, Planet Earth, and Life • Lecture 3: Big History of Humanity • Lecture 4: Big History of the Future Lecture One Part A: What is Big History Part B: Objecons to Big History Part C: Big History and Orientaon Part D: Humans and Big History Part A: What is Big History • A new way historians are trying to understand and communicate the past – Big History • Natural extension of the idea of trying to conceptualize the past on larger scales • Proliferaon of world history courses in universi+es in the USA grew out of the western civiliza:on approach • Big history goes further - argues that there is a lot to be learned by looking at human history on very large scales, much larger than world history! Compare Big History with Tradional History • Tradi+onal history is the study of individuals; change; periods, regions, naons • Result? Fragmented, meaningless view of the past – like a flashlight in an ac – no sense of coherence • Or like fireflies in the garden – everything else is dark! • True illuminaon requires broadening and deepening our enquiry • Looking at relaonships between historical elements over larger spaal and temporal scales Fireflies! Big History is … • A more unified view of the past • Looks at history on the largest possible time scale – from the beginning of the universe! • Reveals an underlying sense of unity and coherence – almost a ‘meaning’ to everything • Allows us to consider ‘our time’ in history as part of the ‘modern revolution’, arguably the most profound moment in all of human history View the past through • In tradional history the lens through which we view mulple lenses the past is stuck at a certain magnifica<on – the ‘viewing of individual ac<ons’ • Big history opens up our choice of lenses again, and helps us see paerns • Like stepping back from the rocks and seeing the Nazca Lines • Through this enhanced, interdisciplinary perspec<ve, big history has the potenal to contribute to genuine consilience – the unity of all knowledge! www.hat.net/album/south Big History helps students answer the following ‘Science’ quesons • How and when did the universe begin? • How are stars formed and why are they fundamental to the creaon of all the more complex elements in the cosmos? • How and when were our sun and solar system made? • How and when was the earth made? • What forces created and shaped the earth’s lands, seas and atmosphere? • How and when did life first appear on earth? • How did life assume the variety of forms we see today? • How and when did modern humans evolve? And these ‘human history’ Ques<ons • When does human history begin, and why? • How did the first human communies live? • How and when did agriculture first appear? • How and when did the first cies and states evolve? • How did agrarian civilizaons evolve over 3000 years? • What are the origins of modern industrial society? • Why did the ‘modern revoluon’ take a European form? • Was the 20th century ‘different’? • Does the study of big history help us predict the future? • What do we know about the ul<mate fate of the universe? • Many feel they know the answers because of their faith Modern • Big history uses modern ‘ ’ scien<fic knowledge to try and Scienfic answer these quesons • Not necessarily a clash – Answers intelligent students can accommodate mulple versions of reality - they are not mutually exclusive • Too much science content? The course is pitched at the scien+fic beginner • Most interes<ng science there is – Big Bang, stars and galaxies, how the Earth was formed, how life emerged and evolved – the BIG quesons! www-curator.jsc.nasa.gov B. Objec<ons to Big History: No. 1 • History on this scale is too thin, loses too much detail, become vacuous and meaningless • While some details disappear, others come into view • E.g. the importance of populaon pressure to human history www.global-vision.org/ popex/ Populaon Growth • In the 20th century, world populaons rose from – C. 1.6 billion, to – C. 6 billion people • It took 250,000 years to reach 1 billion people • It took just 100 years to add another 5 billion people! • Then just 12 years to add another 1 billion (2000 – 2012)!! World P opulation 10,000 BP - Now 7,000 6,000 5,000 2nd Millennium 4,000 The 20th century Millions 3,000 2,000 1,000 0 10,000 9,000 8,000 7,000 6,000 5,000 4,000 3,000 2,000 1,000 0 Years Before Present Objection to Big History No. 2 • We must go beyond the boundaries of our discipline • Yes – we enter the disciplines of everything from cosmology to geology to biology to economics! • But ‘to understand your own country you must travel beyond its borders’! • Enriching experience for historical enquiry Objecon to Big History No. 3 • Big history aBempts to create a grand, unifying narra:ve in a postmodernist age • Postmodernism: ‘all history is fragmented, discon+nuous, without center’ • Big history does aempt to create a grand, sweeping, connected narrave • Because epic stories (Lord of the Rings etc.) are powerful – people need them to make sense of a disjointed and apparently meaningless world www.newcastle.edu.au Objecon to Big • Can we be sure our story is true? History No. 4 • No! Story may seem quaint and childish in the future • But we need a story that will work well for the <me and place we live in (21st Century) • Like the ancient crea<on myths – helped people make sense of the universe, and of their place in it www.dhont.nl/bkunst.htm C. Big History and Orientaon • Big history can help us understand our place in the universe, like a map for the purpose of personal orientaon • Great need for a map of human history, like the scien<fic paradigms of big bang cosmology, plate tectonics, natural selec<on • There is no paradigm in the study of human history, no map of the terrain, so it is difficult to grasp human history as a coherent story • At the small scale we can partly ignore this problem; on the larger scale this lack of a paradigm or large-scale map is a serious problem, par<cularly because we all want to know … How do I fit into space, :me and the Universe? All human societies have asked this question. I’m sure you ask yourselves this question every day!! Big History helps us understand our place in the Universe • Like tradi+onal CREATION STORIES, BIG HISTORY can help us see our place in – SPACE, and – TIME • By doing this, Big History (like tradi+onal Creaon Stories) can help us understand WHO AND WHAT WE ARE THINK OF BIG HISTORY AS A SERIES OF MAPS • Maps tell you where you are, so … • We can think of ‘Big History’ as a series of maps from different perspecves … – Our Universe – Our place in the Universe • Maps of Space • Maps of Time • Maps of Complexity Maps of Space Where is our region in space? Wher e • THERE ARE DIFFERENT TYPES am I? OF MAPS. EACH SHOWS US SOMETHING NEW ABOUT OURSELVES The Street map reminds us that we belong to a neighborhood The National map reminds us that we belong to a country What can the ‘world map’ tell us about who we are? Are there even larger maps? Pamela Benjamin, Grand Rapids, Midwest USA, Summer 2011 What do you notice at this scale? What seems important at this scale? The Street Map Pamela was here! This map shows where we live & What do you notice at this scale? who our neighbors are What seems important at this scale? The City Map Pamela lives here What do you notice at this scale? What seems important? The Connental Map What does this map say about our identity? We live here! World Map from N.
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