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46 of 47 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Maps of Time, July 11, 2004
Weaknesses of the book
-The cosmology section assumes a very low level of knowledge about the subject, and will not be terribly interesting to those who have read more detailed accounts.
-The part of the book covering human civilizations, meanwhile, assumes a great deal of foreknowledge about the details of history (Christian provides virtually no discussion of the rise or fall of particular empires or political systems), making the text rather less useful to those without a reasonable knowledge of world history in the last 3,000 years.
-Christian's use of scientific terms and statistics can be at times misleading (though this may be unintentional). For example, when comparing rich countries to poor countries, Christian uses data unadjusted for differences in purchasing power, thus greatly amplifying the magnitude of income gaps. And again when emphasizing the rise of the multinational corporation, Christian compares the total market value of large corporations to the annual GDPs of nations, thus increasing the apparent size of the corporations.
-Finally, Christian seems at times unreasonably defensive of Marx and critical of free markets, at one point bemoaning that "Sadly, the Communist revolutions of the twentieth century suggest that overthrowing capitalism may be an extremely destructive project." (478). Why is that sad? Why does "Communism" begin with a capital "C" while "capitalism" does not? I may be nitpicking here, but he goes on like this for some time (incidentally, and perhaps only coincidentally, Christian has his doctorate in Russian history).Strengths of the book
-The dustjacket is really nice. That may be trivial, but boy does this tome look good on a bookshelf.
-The book really does cover a lot of ground, going from the dawn of the universe through all of human history, rounding off with predictions which extend right through to the death of the last stars and the ultimate victory of thermodynamics' second law.
-Every chapter ends with a recommended reading list which is alone almost worth buying the book for.
-The writing style is at times irresistible; I could scarcely put down the book to relieve myself in pages 335-440 about the rise of the modern period.
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40 of 41 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An ambitious and well-written book, July 26, 2004
David Christian's Map's of Time might bare the standard for non-parochial academic scholarship for years to come. Starting with the "big bang," Christian charts history from the beginning of the universe to the 21st century by drawing parallels between astronomical, biological, and historical phenomena. While the ambitious scope of this project might prove misguidedly off-putting to the narrow academic specialist (which certainly includes most academics), Christian deserves credit for painting a broad picture amidst an academic culture that prizes knowing more about less.
No one, even Christian, could possibly claim expertise in all the fields that this book traverses. Appropriately and refreshingly, rather than obscuring their works in the footnotes, Christian gives credits to the works of experts whose arguments he draws from within the main text. With a work of this scope, such credit is necessary often. Christian does not use much primary source material, which, again, will make professional historians question the work's greater relevance. But as he states in the introduction, while less accepted in academia, synthesizing information is often as important a task as discovering and presenting new information. This approach is more appealing for many intellectually engaged individuals who do not have the time or energy to keep up with the cutting edge of narrowly defined fields. If academics do not embrace such broader interdisciplinary projects then writers with less scholarly discipline will find eager audiences.
Without much prior knowledge of astronomical jargon, I found Christian's explanation of the big bang, quasars, black holes, star formation, the basic laws of gravitation, and many other complex astronomical phenomena both accessible and fascinating. His coverage of the controversies surrounding precise dating of human ancestors is exhaustive and his explanation of human evolution is cogent. As a historian, however, I think he probably dedicates too much time to these two sections (nearly half of the text).
From the agricultural to the industrial revolution, Christian stresses the interaction between different civilizations or "global zones" of influence as the primary dynamic in history, at least in Africa/Asia/Europe. This methodology illuminates the importance of interaction between civilizations and attempts to display the parochialism of studying "western" or "eastern" civilization in isolation. In this vein, this book responds to the increasing importance of globalization and the subsequent push in the academy and secondary schools for "world history." Yet while this might be an effective approach to analyzing dissemination of technology, the transmission of disease, and the integration of economies, it leaves much to be desired in the way of ideology and world views, which undoubtedly shapes history.
With the coming of the industrial revolution and the emergence of the nation state, Christian shifts his focus to Europe and eventually America. This focus is appropriate given that, for better or for worse, western nations have shaped most of history for the past two centuries. Christian's analysis of the environmental degradation that resulted from industrial nation states past and continuing attempts to consume more in the twentieth century is particularly powerful. Through extensive use of statistics, he shows that the current rate of population increases and consumption is unsustainable. This is not new news but putting this within a broad panorama of history goes a long way towards showing us just how profligate our society is. Ultimately, it makes Christian's speculation on possible futures especially relevant.
All told, this book is well-written, imaginative, and cogent. Realize, however, that Christian is not an expert in all these fields and will not leave readers with more specialized knowledge satisfied with his coverage of their areas of specialization.
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20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The modern model, August 5, 2005
Intellectually stimulating, rapid-fire journey, the "powers of 10" movie specialized for history buffs. Some of the material I found superficial/generalized to be of substance, but the author acknowledges that can be the nature of Big History. An ambitious book which talks directly to ideas that most historians only philosophically discuss. A charge of inductive reasoning would not be far fetched, ie. cherry picking of facts to support prefigured models. Excellent overview of Big History and World History ideas and methods and themes. Annotated bibliographies at the end of each chapter, and large one at the end of the book, are very good for further exploration, most book recommendations are recent (1990s and early 2000s). Despite criticisms learned some new and important perspectives and recommend it highly.
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