Big History: An Origin Story for the Anthropocene

Big History tells the story of the entire Universe. By doing so, it helps build bridges between many different disciplines, showing how complexity built, step by step, eventually generating the astonishing global society humans have created in the 21st century. Understanding how and why we humans now dominate our biosphere is crucial if we are to figure out ways of managing the huge, and potentially dangerous powers we now control.

About David Christian
David Christian is Professor of History at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. Dr. Christian is by training a historian of Russia and the Soviet Union, but since the 1980s he has become interested in World History on very large scales. In 1989, he began teaching courses on 'Big History', surveying the past on the largest possible scales, including those of biology and astronomy; and in 2004, he published the first text on 'Big History'.

He is a member of the Australian Academy of the Humanities and the Royal Holland Society of Sciences and Humanities, Affiliates Chair for the World History Association, and a member of the editorial boards of the Journal of Global History and the Cambridge History of the World.