Praise for Big History:
“This exciting saga crosses space and time to illustrate how humans, born of stardust, were shaped—and how they in turn shaped the world we know today.”
—Publishers Weekly
“There’s much to argue about in Brown’s account, and much to discover.”
—The Washington Post
“Brown combines the findings of major authorities in the natural sciences and the human sciences, crisply portraying the discoveries and debates on history at the grandest scale.”
—Patrick Manning, Andrew W. Mellon Professor of World History, University of Pittsburgh
“This exciting saga crosses space and time to illustrate how humans, born of stardust, were shaped—and how they in turn shaped the world we know today.”
—Publishers Weekly
“There’s much to argue about in Brown’s account, and much to discover.”
—The Washington Post
“Brown combines the findings of major authorities in the natural sciences and the human sciences, crisply portraying the discoveries and debates on history at the grandest scale.”
—Patrick Manning, Andrew W. Mellon Professor of World History, University of Pittsburgh
Big History
From the Big Bang to the Present
paperback
$18.95
New Edition: Jared Diamond meets Stephen Hawking in a book that fits human history into the history of the universe, by an American Book Award winner
Omniscience is a wonderful and terrible thing, but Ms. Brown wears it lightly, from her first lively observation of that ineffable point of unimaginable destiny from which the universe exploded in a second.
—THE NEW YORK TIMES
—THE NEW YORK TIMES
Extend the human story backward for the five thousand years of recorded history and it covers no more than a millionth of a lifetime of the Earth. Yet how do we humans take stock of the history of our planet, and our own place within it? A “vast historical mosaic” (Publishers Weekly) rendered engaging and accessible, Big History interweaves different disciplines of knowledge to offer an all-encompassing account of history on Earth. Since its publication, Cynthia Brown’s “world history on a grand scale” (Kirkus) has been translated into nine languages and has helped propel the “big history” concept to viral status. This new edition of Brown’s seminal work is more relevant today than ever before, as we increasingly must grapple with accelerating rates of change and, ultimately, the legacy we will bequeath to future generations. Here is a pathbreaking portrait of our world, from the birth of the universe from a single point the size of an atom to life on a twenty-first-century planet inhabited by 7 billion people.
Cynthia Stokes Brown is a retired professor of education at Dominican University of California. She has written works of history and biography, including the American Book Award-winning Ready from Within: Septima Clark and the Civil Rights Movement, Connecting with the Past, and Refusing Racism. She lives in Berkeley, California.
Cynthia Stokes Brown is a retired professor of education at Dominican University of California. She has written works of history and biography, including the American Book Award-winning Ready from Within: Septima Clark and the Civil Rights Movement, Connecting with the Past, and Refusing Racism. She lives in Berkeley, California.
Fall 2012
paperback
5 1/2 x 8 1/4, 320 pages
978-1-59558-848-7
paperback
5 1/2 x 8 1/4, 320 pages
978-1-59558-848-7
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