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How big would the Earth look like in historyif we factored in human population growth?
Full Earth,as photographedby the crew ofApollo 17,December 1972
Our shrinking Earth
2014: 7 billion1990: 5 billion1960: 3.5 billion1900: 1.8 billion
1800: 1 billion1500: 500 million
0 CE: 250 million
2014: 7 billion1990: 5 billion1960: 3.5 billion1900: 1.8 billion
1800: 1 billion1500: 500 million
0 CE: 250 million
1500: 500 million
2014: 7 billion1990: 5 billion1960: 3.5 billion1900: 1.8 billion
1800: 1 billion
0 CE: 250 million
Oudemanhuispoort, Amsterdam, NLWhere we started our first big history course, December 1994 CE
SociologistJ. Goudsblom
and myself,Spring 1995 CE
Gerardus Vossius1577-1649 CE
De historiae utilitate
Caspar Barlaeus1584-1648 CE
Mercator sapiens
ATHENEUM ILLUSTREFounded in the Agnietenkapel, January 1632 CE
Today,virtually unknown
The Mariners MirroyrLucas Jansz. WaghenaerLeyden, 1584 CE Amsterdam Town Hall
(now Royal Palace), completed 1648 CE
Connecting the heaven and the Earth
Gerardus Mercator1512 – 1594 CE
Jodocus Hondius1563 – 1612 CE
From the Blaeu Atlas,1635 CE
1968 CE
Willem Jansz. Blaeu,1571-1638 CE
1994 CE: Our first big history course
“Virtually unnoticed a self-organizing and anti-hierarchical network is growing, with computer users as nerve nodes within a nerve system.”
John de Vos,Spring 1995 CE
Jona Oberski, Spring 1995 CE
• Information instantly available on all aspects of big history, including YouTube movies and documentaries
• Easy contacts with scholars worldwide
• The Big History Project
• Other online courses, including the new crash course big history.
Today:
What can we do in this situation?
• What is our strength, now trans-disciplinary cooperationhas become so very common ?
• What can big history add to that?
• All knowledge on one single time linetelling us how everything has become the way it is.
• Integrated theoretical approach.
• Zooming in and out throughout history(for instance with Chronozoom as a tool).
• Cherry picking in history according to the needs.
• Combining the harvest of ideas into a new and hopefully useful intellectual frame.
Strength of big history:
On May 7,1959 CE, Charles Percy Snow (1905-1980 CE)delivered an influential Rede Lecture at the Senate House, Cambridge,called The Two Cultures.
Required: Intercultural Communication
Foster worldwide discussions about big history
Big historymay be the first type of history that stands a chance of becoming globally accepted by people living in urban areas.
Of course, discussions will remain about many aspects.
But we may be witnessing the emergence of a Globally-Accepted View of History
much like today there are, for instance,one single geography, physics, chemistry, geology, biology,
all with their discussions and regional emphasis.
Russia:Great initiatives over the past 20 years,especially publications:
Akop Nazaretyan, Andrey Korotayev Leonid Grinin
(various affiliations)
with their pioneering
‘Uchitel’ Publishing HouseIncluding Proceedings of 2012 IBHA Conference
China:Sun Yue, Capital Normal University, Beijing,with the pioneering Global History Review
+ Interview in:
Guangming Daily2012 CE
2014 CE
Primus Books, New Delhi, India,Major big history publication edited by: Barry Rodrigue, Andrey KorotayevLeonid Grinin
A lot more is happening in many other places, many initiatives, many players, much of it on the Internet.
What else can IBHA do to stimulate these discussions?
I think we should let most of it develop spontaneously,
• IBHA conferences as major venue for these discussions.
• Further encourage discussions on our web site.
All suggestions are welcome !
• Support the Big History Project as part of an open discussion.
• Learn more from what they are doing here at Dominican.
• Promote university big history courses worldwide, including MOOCs, for instance in local and regional languages.
• Develop advanced big history courses:• Develop a wider range of course models,• Introduce a wider range of teaching tools,• Develop more advanced big history theories.
Teaching
Develop in-class activities that cannot be done online, related to all phases of big history
• Experiments, preferably with unknown outcome.
- Highlight themes with larger significance, such as observing sun spots, measuring power densities, experimenting with ocean navigation and map making, world fairs,……….
- This is only the beginning of an almost endless range of exciting in-class activities.
1889 CE
1893 CE
In class:• Major themes in big history,
– Energy flows, – Goldilocks circumstances
perhaps in cooperation with other courses, thus building up data bases and networks.
Form of crowd sourcing
• Any themes students come up with that look reasonable.
Big History Research
Ph.D.’s at universities, in cooperation with supervisors from various disciplines
Possible temes:
• General themes in big history
• Little big histories,including zooming in and out while cherry picking
• History of big history
• Pedagogy of big history
Big History Research
Many goals,But one general goal:
Better understanding of how we got ourselves into the situation we find ourselves in,
So that we can formulate better strategies for the future.
To do all these things, we need financing:
We need ** Wise Merchants **
We can hopefully deliver the knowledge,But we need some money to do so.
In sum:
• I think there is a bright future for big history
• But we will need to work hard to make it happen, and be willing to openly discuss all aspects to achieve the best possible understanding of big history.
• We have come a long way already,
• So, I think, with your energy, intelligence, and perseverance we will make it happen.