Big History : The Big Bang, Life on Earth, and the Rise of Humanity /
David Christian ; The Teaching Company.
- 1st ed.
- Chantilly, VA : The Teaching Company, 2010.
- 8 DVDs (1440 min) : sd. col. ; 4 3/4 in + 1 Course Guidebook (280 p. : ill. ; 19 cm).
- The Great Courses .
48 x 30 min. long lectures.
The Course Guidebook includes: 296-page course synopsis, photos & illustrations, suggested readings, as well as questions to consider.
Includes a biography of the author, a course scope, and bibliographical references.
"About 100,000 to 60,000 years ago, a species of hominines—bipedal ape-like creatures—began to move out of its home territory in Africa and into the Asian continent. Today, homo sapiens, the descendants of those first hominines—live in nearly every ecological niche. We fly through the air in planes, communicate instantaneously over immense distances, and develop theories about the creation of the Universe. In Big History: The Big Bang, Life on Earth, and the Rise of Humanity, you’ll hear this ever-evolving story—the history of everything—in its monumental entirety from the moment the Universe grew from the size of an atom to the size of a galaxy in a fraction of a second" (Publisher's website). DVD CONTENTS: 1. What Is Big History? 2. Moving across Multiple Scales 3. Simplicity and Complexity 4. Evidence and the Nature of Science 5. Threshold 1 - Origins of Big Bang Cosmology 6. How Did Everything Begin? Disc 2 7. Threshold 2 - The First Stars and Galaxies 8. Threshold 3 - Making Chemical Elements 9. Threshold 4 - The Earth and the Solar System 10. The Early Earth - A Short History 11. Plate Tectonics and the Earth 12. Threshold 5 - Life Disc 3
13. Darwin and Natural Selection 14. The Evidence for Natural Selection 15. The Origins of Life 16. Life on Earth - Single-celled Organisms 17. Life on Earth - Multi-celled Organisms 18. Hominines Disc 4
19. Evidence on Hominine Evolution 20. Threshold 6 - What Makes Humans Different? 21. Hom sapiens - The First Humans 22. Paleolithic Lifeways 23. Change in the Paleolithic Era 24. Threshold 7 - Agriculture Disc 5 25. The Origins of Agriculture 26. The First Agrarian Societies 27. Power and Its Origins 28. Early Power Structures 29. From Villages to Cities 30. Sumer - The First Agrarian Civilization Disc 6 31. Agrarian Civilizations in Other Regions 32. The World That Agrarian Civilizations Made 33. Long Trends - Expansion and State Power 34. Long Trends - Rates of Innovation 35. Long Trends - Disease and Malthusian Cycles 36. Comparing the World Zones Disc 7
37. The Americas in the Later Agrarian Era 38. Threshold 8 - The Modern Revolution 39. The Medieval Malthusian Cycle, 500 - 1350 40. The Early Modern Cycle, 1350-1700 41. Breakthrough - The Industrial Revolution
42. Spread of the Industrial Revolution to 1900 Disc 8 43. The 20th Century 44. The World That the Modern Revolution Made 45. Human History and the Biosphere 46. The Next 100 Years 47. The Next Millenium and the Remote Future 48. Big History - Humans in the Cosmos Disc 1
"About 100,000 to 60,000 years ago, a species of hominines—bipedal ape-like creatures—began to move out of its home territory in Africa and into the Asian continent. Today, homo sapiens, the descendants of those first hominines—live in nearly every ecological niche. We fly through the air in planes, communicate instantaneously over immense distances, and develop theories about the creation of the Universe. In Big History: The Big Bang, Life on Earth, and the Rise of Humanity, you’ll hear this ever-evolving story—the history of everything—in its monumental entirety from the moment the Universe grew from the size of an atom to the size of a galaxy in a fraction of a second" (Publisher's website). CONTENTS:
Disc 1 1. What Is Big History? 2. Moving across Multiple Scales 3. Simplicity and Complexity 4. Evidence and the Nature of Science 5. Threshold 1 - Origins of Big Bang Cosmology 6. How Did Everything Begin?
Disc 2 7. Threshold 2 - The First Stars and Galaxies 8. Threshold 3 - Making Chemical Elements 9. Threshold 4 - The Earth and the Solar System 10. The Early Earth - A Short History 11. Plate Tectonics and the Earth12. Threshold 5 - Life
Disc 3 13. Darwin and Natural Selection 14. The Evidence for Natural Selection 15. The Origins of Life 16. Life on Earth - Single-celled Organisms 17. Life on Earth - Multi-celled Organisms 18. Hominines
Disc 4 19. Evidence on Hominine Evolution 20. Threshold 6 - What Makes Humans Different? 21. Hom sapiens - The First Humans 22. Paleolithic Lifeways 23. Change in the Paleolithic Era 24. Threshold 7 - Agriculture
Disc 5 25. The Origins of Agriculture 26. The First Agrarian Societies 27. Power and Its Origins 28. Early Power Structures 29. From Villages to Cities 30. Sumer - The First Agrarian Civilization
Disc 6 31. Agrarian Civilizations in Other Regions 32. The World That Agrarian Civilizations Made 33. Long Trends - Expansion and State Power 34. Long Trends - Rates of Innovation 35. Long Trends - Disease and Malthusian Cycles 36. Comparing the World Zones
Disc 7 37. The Americas in the Later Agrarian Era 38. Threshold 8 - The Modern Revolution 39. The Medieval Malthusian Cycle, 500 - 1350 40. The Early Modern Cycle, 1350-1700 41. Breakthrough - The Industrial Revolution 42. Spread of the Industrial Revolution to 1900
Disc 8 43. The 20th Century 44. The World That the Modern Revolution Made 45. Human History and the Biosphere 46. The Next 100 Years 47. The Next Millenium and the Remote Future 48. Big History - Humans in the Cosmos
1598034103 (dvd)
Great Courses--History. History--Civilization. History--Culture and philosophy. World history--Human evolution.