Full Description
The Routledge Companion to Big History guides readers though the variety of themes and concepts that structure contemporary scholarship in the field of big history.
The volume is divided into five parts, each representing current and evolving areas of interest to the community, including big history's relationship to science, social science, the humanities, and the future, as well as teaching big history and 'little big histories'. Considering an ever-expanding range of theoretical, pedagogical and research topics, the book addresses such questions as what is the relationship between big history and scientific research, how are big historians working with philosophers and religious thinkers to help construct 'meaning', how are leading theoreticians making sense of big history and its relationship to other creation narratives and paradigms, what is 'little big history', and how does big history impact on thinking about the future? The book highlights the place of big history in historiographical traditions and the ways in which it can be used in education and public discourse across disciplines and at all levels.
A timely collection with contributions from leading proponents in the field, it is the ideal guide for those wanting to engage with the theories and concepts behind big history.
Contents
Introductory chapters
Introduction to The Routledge Companion to Big History
Craig Benjamin, Esther Quaedackers and David Baker
1 What is big history?
David Christian
PART I
Big history and science
2 Big history and the study of time: the underlying
temporalities of big history
Barry Wood
3 Big history and astronomy - space is big: the Fermi
paradox: its relevance to big history and the human race
Jonathan Markley
4 Big history and macro-evolution: evolutionary principles
and mechanisms at biological and social phases of the
big history
Leonid E. Grinin, Andrey Korotayev and Alexander Markov
PART II
Big history, social science and the humanities
5 Big history and anthropology: our place in the
multiverse: anthropology, civilization and big history
Barry H. Rodrigue
6 Big history and archaeology: archaeology is big history
Brian Fagan
7 Big history and philosophy: philosophical foundations
of big history: why big history makes sense
Armando Menéndez Viso
8 Big history and political science: science, the deep past,
and the political
Lowell Gustafson
9 Big history and historiography: deep tides and swirling
foam: the influence of macro-historical trends on micro-historical
events
David Baker
10 Big history and critical theory: science, history and why
theory matters
David Blanks
11 Big history, morality and religion
Cynthia Stokes Brown
PART III
Little big histories
12 A case for little big histories
Esther Quaedackers
13 The little big history of the Nalón River, Asturias, Spain
Olga García-Moreno, Diego Álvarez-Laó, Miguel Arbizu,
Eduardo Dopico, Eva García-Vázquez, Joaquín García Sansegundo,
Montserrat Jiménez-Sánchez, Laura Miralles, Ícaro Obeso,
Ángel Rodríguez-Rey, Marco de la Rasilla Vives,
Luis Vicente Sánchez Fernández, Luis Rodríguez Terente,
Luigi Toffolatti and Pablo Turrero
14 Sketch of a little big history of Private E.E. Benjamin
and the Great War
Craig Benjamin
PART IV
Teaching big history
15 The Big History Project in Australia
Tracy Sullivan
16 Big history teaching in Korea
Seohyung Kim
17 Crossing thresholds: using big history to meet challenges
in teaching and learning in the United States
Robert B. Bain
PART V
Big history and the future
18 Big history and the future of technology
Leonid E. Grinin and Anton L. Grinin
19 Big history and the Singularity
Akop P. Nazaretyan
20 Underground metro systems: a durable geological proxy
of rapid urban population growth and energy consumption
during the Anthropocene
Mark Williams, Matt Edgeworth, Jan Zalasiewicz,
Colin N. Waters, Will Steffen, Alexander P. Wolfe,
Nicholas J. Minter, Alejandro Cearreta, Agnieszka Gałuszka,
Peter Haff, John McNeill, Andrew Revkin, Daniel deB. Richter,
Simon Price, and Colin Summerhayes
21 The coming energy transition: what comes after
fossil-fueled civilization?
Joseph Voros
Index
