Skip to content
Responsive image
Vendor
Fritz Agency
Christian Dittus
Original language
English

THE SHORTEST HISTORY OF THE WORLD

David Baker

A fascinating journey through life, the universe and everything

How did time begin? What conditions led to humans evolving on Earth? Will we survive the Anthropocene? And is it really true that we're all made from stars?

The Shortest History of the World follows the continuum of historical change in the cosmos - from the Big Bang, through the evolution of life, to human history. Combining knowledge from chemistry, biology and physics with insights from the social sciences and humanities, The Shortest History of the World takes a bird's eye view of 13.8 billion years.

In this compelling and revealing book, David Baker traces the rise of complexity in the cosmos, from the first atoms to the first life and then to humans and the things we have made. He shows us how simple clumps of hydrogen gas transformed into complex human societies. This approach – Big History – allows us to see beyond the chaos of human affairs to the overall trajectory. Finally, Baker looks at the dramatic and sudden changes we're making to our planet and its biosphere and how history hints at what might come next.

David Baker is a history and science writer for SimonWhistler.com who holds the world's first PhD in Big History, studying under David Christian. He has delivered award-winning lectures at Macquarie University and the University of Amsterdam, is a visiting lecturer at the University of Paris-Sorbonne, and wrote the YouTube series Crash Course Big History, hosted by John and Hank Green in partnership with the Gates Big History Project.
Available products
Book

Published 2022-07-01 by Black Inc.

Comments

“We have been the dominant species on this planet for the briefest flicker of our history, and until we understand that, we can't reckon meaningfully with the dramatic and sudden changes we're making to our planet and its biosphere.” –John Green, bestselling author of The Fault in Our Stars

USA: The Experiment; Bulgaria: Prozoretz; Greece: Metachmio; Spain: Antoni Bosch;