The Routledge Companion to Big History

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.

Craig Benjamin is a Professor of History at Grand Valley State University in Michigan, USA, where he researches and teaches big history and ancient Eurasian history. Recent books include Big History: Between Nothing and Everything (co-authored with David Christian and Cynthia Stokes Brown, 2014); and Empires of Ancient Eurasia. The First Silk Roads Era 100 BCE - 250 CE (2018). Esther Quaedackers is a Lecturer in Big History at the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, where she has been developing, coordinating, and teaching big history courses for over a decade. She is the inventor of the 'little big history' approach, which is a research and teaching method in which small subjects are connected to aspects of big history in order to generate creative new ideas about how these subjects came to be the way they are. David Baker is Lecturer of Big History at Macquarie University, Australia, and is the first scholar worldwide to achieve a PhD in that field. He is co-designer of Big History School (three K-12 curricula), Big History: Connecting Knowledge on Coursera, and contributor to the Big History Project. He was scriptwriter for two seasons of Crash Course: Big History with over 12 million views on Youtube. He has produced numerous research articles, chapters, and edited volumes, including works in the Journal of World History and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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 Galuszka, 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