Second Thoughts

What’s the Significance?

big history, lvi

cosmic calendar, lvi

the three Cs, lxi

comparative world history, lxii

Big Picture Questions

  1. How do modern notions of the immense size and age of the universe affect your understanding of human history?
  2. What examples of comparison, connection, and change in world history would you like to explore further as your course unfolds?
  3. In what larger contexts might you place your own life history?

Next Steps: For Further Study

David Christian, Cynthia Stokes Brown, and Craig Benjamin, Big History: Between Nothing and Everything (2013). A thoughtful survey of the emerging field of “big history” by three of its leading practitioners.

Ross E. Dunn, ed., The New World History: A Teacher’s Companion (2000). A collection of articles dealing with the teaching of world history.

Patrick Manning, Navigating World History: Historians Create a Global Past (2003). An up-to-date overview of the growth of world history, the field’s achievements, and the debates within it.

J. R. McNeill and William H. McNeill, The Human Web: A Bird’s-Eye View of World History (2003). An approach to world history that emphasizes the changing webs of connection among human communities.

Heidi Roupp, ed., Teaching World History in the Twenty-First Century: A Resource Book (2010). A practical resource book for the teaching of world history.

“World History Matters,” http://worldhistorymatters.org/. A point of entry to many world history Web sites, featuring numerous images and essays.