Big History

What Hacker News says

1. dredmorbiusMar 2024
   Not offhand, though Nick Lane's books come highly recommended and are on my own rather expansive reading pile....

   David Christian's "Big History" looks at the past through large frame, and includes the concepts of which I'm discussing.

   Otherwise, I've pieced together my understanding from many sourcesl

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2. dredmorbiusNov 2021
   If you'd like a slightly more detailed, but still-manageable version of this, I strongly recommend David Christian's Big History. It's the story of history, from the Big Bang to the present.

   Wikipedia overview: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_History

   Book (one of many): https://www.worldcat.org/title/origin-story-a-big-history-of...

   There was at one time a lecture series running about 30--40 episodes on YouTube, though I don't find that presently. There are still numerous matching hits on YouTube for "Big History" "David Christian", though I've not explored them for matches. Shorter overviews by Christian exist, including his TED Talk:

   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqc9zX04DXs

   Several people have mentioned Vaclav Smil. His 1995 Energy in World History and 2017 Energy and Civilization cover the past 100,000 or 10,000 years of the history shown in TFA, largely looking at history through the lens of energy. It's a fascinating story.

   https://www.worldcat.org/title/energy-in-world-history/oclc/...

   https://www.worldcat.org/title/energy-and-civilization-a-his...

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3. bob_theslob646May 2018
   Book Titles

   > Leonardo da Vinci, by Walter Isaacson.

   > Everything Happens for a Reason and Other Lies I’ve Loved, by Kate Bowler

   > Lincoln in the Bardo, by George Saunders.

   > Origin Story: A Big History of Everything, by David Christian.

   > Factfulness, by Hans Rosling, with Ola Rosling and Anna Rosling Ronnlund.

   He goes in depth on why he recommends them on the gatesnotes website.

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4. dredmorbiusMar 2017
   Will and Ariel Durant's Lessons of History. I particularly recommend the audio recording, which includes additional interviews and asides from the Durants. Short (~115 pages), but highly informative.

   http://www.worldcat.org/title/lessons-of-history-by-will-and...

   http://www.worldcat.org/title/lessons-of-history-revised-ed/...

   Vaclav Smil, Energy in World History. Arguably a far more significant basis for describing what has transpired. Manfred Weissenbacher's Sources of Power covers much the same topic, though at far greater length (not always relevance), and slightly unevenly. Daniel Yergin's The Prize addresses specifically oil's impact (and history), and was mind-opening for me.

   Karl Polanyi, The Great Transformation. The Industrial Revolution and emergence of the modern technological world.

   http://www.worldcat.org/title/origins-of-our-time-the-great-...

   David Christian, Big History. This goes back somewhat before ancient times, to the Big Bang.

   http://www.worldcat.org/title/big-history/oclc/940282526&ref...

   Add to that a good overall outline. H.G. Wells, Outline of History is somewhat in the tradition of David Christian's (and Christian cites it as a prior version of Big History). It's dated and jingoistic, but serves itself to show that viewpoints and perspectives change with time. Arnold Toynbee's History of the World is another, though larger. The Durants' Story of Civilization another.

   http://www.worldcat.org/title/outline-of-history-being-a-pla...

   http://www.worldcat.org/search?q=+au%3Atoynbee+arnold+joseph...

   http://www.worldcat.org/search?q=au%3Adurant+ti%3Astory+of+c...

   Will Durant's Story of Philosophy gets at the ideas which have shaped history. James Burke, Connections and The Day the Universe Changed cover similar ground. Both have extensive bibliographies for further reading.

   http://www.worldcat.org/title/story-of-philosophy-the-lives-...

   http://www.worldcat.org/title/connections/oclc/145746383&ref...

   http://www.worldcat.org/title/day-the-universe-changed/oclc/...

   Finally, Reddit's /r/askhistorians has an excellent set of recommendations:

   https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/wiki/books

   This is probably a nonstandard list, but it's a set I'm finding particularly useful in filling in what was missing from my own earlier understanding.

   With a general outline, I find I'm diving into specific areas and aspects of history. Less the politics and big events, more the philosophy, technology, energy, and informational aspects. There's some particularly good specific research on times, places, and periods being written. And some amazing online resources, ranging from primary materials (the Internet Archive and Hathi Trust have scans of original texts, Project Gutenberg has those converted to print, Wikisource as well), to compilations -- the History of Information and Basics of Philosophy both strike me as quietly amazing.

   http://historyofinformation.com

   http://philosophybasics.com

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5. polynomialJun 2022
   Great adage. It's from David Christian in Origin Story: A Big History of Everything, but really it's just a paraphrasing of Einstein, who compared knowledge to a circle, and referred to the circumference of darkness, rather than the unknown.
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6. dredmorbiusAug 2018
   There are historians who apply a scientific perspective, and identify with the soccial, or at times, physical, sciences.

   Peter Turchin: https://evolution-institute.org/profile/peter-turchin/

   David Christian (Big History) and Kyle Harper (U. OK) comee to mind.

   Economic's and economists' record wwith historical data and theory is an exceptionally poor standard to follow. (There are some exceptions to the rule.)

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