Big History
Thursday, 31 August 2006
For the last few months, huge machines have been touring our neighborhood at a snail’s pace, replacing first sewage and now fresh water pipes. This massive and noisy monster worked its way down our street the other day, shaking the house, and emitting vibrations I could feel in my bones. Either that, or historian David Christian’s 2004 Maps of Time, about what he calls Big History, is more monumental than I thought!
For several excellent reasons, I recommend this volume over anything by that Diamond guy. Christian says his book is a modern creation myth (pg. 2), and I’d say it’s more, more scientific and fairly comprehensive, and lacking in the huge contradictions that often stud creation myths, although the Big History tag seems more commercial and like a marketing gimmick than I prefer….