Maps of Time
An Introduction to Big History
Introduction
A Modern Creation Myth?
"Big History": Looking at the Past on All Timescales
[T]he way to study history is to view it as a long duration, as what I
have called the longue duree. It is not the only way, but it is one
which by itself can pose all the great problems of social structures,
past and present. It is the only language binding history to the
present, creating one indivisible whole.
Universal history comprehends the past life of mankind, not in its
particular relations and trends, but in its fullness and totality.
A Moment's Halt-a momentary taste
Of Being from the Well amid the Waste-
And Lo!-the phantom Caravan has reached
The Nothing it set out from-Oh, make haste!
Like merchants in a huge desert caravan, we need to know where we are
going, where we have come from, and in whose company we are traveling.
Modern science tells us that the caravan is vast and varied, and our
fellow travelers in ... read full excerpt from Maps of Time: An Introduction to Big History ebook
