Best Selling Books by David Christian

This book presents the history of globalization as a network-based story in the context of Big History. Departing from the traditional historic discourse, in which communities, cities, and states serve as the main units of analysis, the authors instead trace the historical emergence, growth, interconnection, and merging of various types of networks that have gradually encompassed the globe. They also focus on the development of certain ideas, processes, institutions, and phenomena that spread through those networks to become truly global. The book specifies five macro-periods in the history of globalization and comprehensively covers the first four, from roughly the 9th - 7th millennia BC to World War I. For each period, it identifies the most important network-related developments that facilitated (or even spurred on) such transitions and had the greatest impacts on the history of globalization. By analyzing the world system''s transition to new levels of complexity and connectivity, the book provides valuable insights into the course of Big History and the evolution of human societies.

Realms of the Silk Roads Part 1: New Sources on Inner Asian History N. Sims-Williams, Some Reflections on Zoroastrianism in Sogdiana and Bactria; G. Mikkelsen, Traite/Sermon on the Light-Nous in Chinese and its Parallels in the Parthian, Sogdian and Old Turkish; A.V.G. Betts & V.N. Yagodin, Hunting Traps on the Ustiurt Plateau, Uzbekistan. Part 2: Long Distance Contacts S. Lieu, Byzantium, Persia and China: Interstate Relations on the Eve of the Islamic Conquest; D. Christian, Silk Roads or Steppe Roads ? The Silk Roads in World History; M. Underdown, The Northern Silk Road: Ties between Turfan and Korea. Part 3: Political Life C. Benjamin, The Yuezhi and their Neighbours: Evidence for the Yuezhi in the Chinese Sources c. 220 - c. 25 BCE; K. Nourzhanov, Politics of National Reconciliation in Tajikistan: From Peace Talks to (Partial) Political Settlements; S. Akbarzadeh, Islam and Regional Stability in Central Asia; C. Mackerras, Relations Between the Uygur State and China''s Tang Dynasty, 744-840. Part 4: Perspectives G. Watson, Prestigious Peregrinations : British Travellers in Central Asia c. 1830-1914; F. Patrikeeff, The Geopolitics of Myth: Interwar Northeast Asia and Images of an Inner Asian Empire; D. Thwaites, The Road to Urumqui: Zunun Kadir''s Lost World; F. Patrikeeff & J. Perkins, National and Imperial Identity: A Triptych of Baltic Germans in Inner Asia. Part 5: Teaching Inner Asian History R. Fletcher & E. Hetherington, The China TimeMap Project: China and the Silk Roads; M. With, Creating Responsible Educational Images of Judaic / Christian / Islamic Relations.

A systematic compilation of the timeless paper and plaster sculptures of a great sculptor of our time.

Every second of our lives - whether we''re looking both ways before crossing the street, celebrating the birth of a baby, or moving to a new city - we must cope with an unknowable future. How do we do this? And how do we, like most living organisms, manage this impossible challenge quite well... at least most of the time? David Christian, historian and bestselling author of Origin Story, is renowned for pioneering the emerging discipline of Big History, which surveys the whole of the past. But with Future Stories, he casts his sharp analytical eye forward, offering an introduction to the strange world of the future, and a guide to what we think we know about it at all scales, from the predictive mechanisms of single-celled organisms and tomato plants to the merging of colossal galaxies billions of years from now. Drawing together science and history, philosophy and theology from a huge range of places and times, Christian explores how we prepare for uncertain futures, including the future of human evolution, artificial intelligence, interstellar travel, and more. By linking the study of the past much more closely to the study of the future, we can begin to imagine what the world will look like in the next hundred years and consider solutions to the biggest challenges facing us all.

A maioria dos historiadores estuda os segmentos mais curtos de tempo, dando destaque a datas específicas, figuras e documentos. Mas como seria estudar toda a história, desde o Big Bang até à atualidade - e até ao futuro distante? Se analisássemos o tempo no seu todo, como mudaria a perceção que temos do universo, da Terra e da existência humana? Essas foram as questões que David Christian se propôs responder quando começou a explorar a ideia de «Grande História», a nova e mais entusiasmante abordagem para compreendermos onde temos estado, onde estamos e para onde vamos. Neste livro, o autor leva-nos numa viagem empolgante através dos 13 800 milhões de anos que conhecemos como «história». Concentrando-se em acontecimentos definidores (limiares), tendências marcantes e questões profundas sobre as nossas origens, David Christian expõe as linhas escondidas que interligam tudo - desde a criação do planeta até ao advento da agricultura, à guerra nuclear e mais além. Com análises impressionantes sobre a origem do universo, o começo da vida, a emergência da vida humana e o que o futuro nos pode trazer, esta obra redefine o lugar do Homem no cosmos. Nesta obra, em pouco mais de 300 páginas, David Christian resume a história do Universo e da humanidade. Um livro recomendado por Bill Gates e Carlo Rovelli, com direitos vendidos para mais de 25 países.

我們不能只是了解全球史、世界史！ 更必須掌握「Big History大歷史」，更宏觀、開闊、全面、完整的人類歷史圖像敘述！ 大衛‧克里斯欽開創大歷史學派「Big History大歷史」開山之作 2005年榮獲西方歷史協會年度最佳世界歷史圖書獎 （The World History Association Book Prize），暢銷迄今！ 比爾‧蓋茲強力推薦、斥資千萬傾力支持， 針對歐美中學生、大學生、教師設計全球公開線上課「Big History大歷史計畫」！ 《時代週刊》、《衛報》、《新科學家》、《美國科學家》好評如潮 打通時間線，更新世界觀，引發認知革命的「Big History大歷史」開山之作，將人類的歷史置於生物圈甚至整個宇宙歷史，講述從宇宙大爆炸至今，宇宙、地球、生命、人類長達130億年的大歷史。大衛‧克里斯欽開創大歷史學派，創造跨領域跨知識的影響力，暢銷迄今！ 《Big History大歷史：跨越130億年時空，打破知識藩籬的時間旅圖》講述從大爆炸到地球形成，生命起源到現代文明長達130億年的歷史，將人類史融入整個宇宙的時間線。它是新一輪的認知革命，比爾‧蓋茲斥資千萬傾力支持的全球公開課「Big History大歷史計畫」（Big History Project），向全世界推廣大歷史教育；他高度讚賞大歷史改變了我們看待世界的方式。全球史奠基人威廉‧麥克尼爾，將大衛‧克里斯欽的《Big History大歷史》譽為媲美牛頓「萬有引力定律」、達爾文「進化論」的經典著作；既有《人類大歷史》的宏觀視野，也有《時間簡史》和《物種起源》的知識深度，建立起整個世界起源直至未來的時間架構。 大衛‧克里斯欽的「Big History大歷史」提供人類一種新世界觀，更新了我們對歷史和現實的認知。他在《Big History大歷史》中完美結合了自然史與人類史，重新定義時間和歷史：從宇宙大爆炸開始說起，多尺度考量宇宙、地球和人類的歷史演進，整合人類共同的知識財富，彌合人文科學與自然科學的斷裂；打破知識學科界線，摒棄針孔式的世界觀，抵制知識碎片化，綜合天文學、生物學、考古學、物理學、歷史學等多門知識，成為一門跨領域跨學科的新知識。 與傳統世界史不同的是，大衛‧克里斯欽倡導的「大歷史」不再局限於民族、地區、國家的歷史，而是將人類史視為宇宙歷史的一個章節，重新定位人類在宇宙演化進程中的歷史座標。因此「大歷史」深刻影響了大眾讀者對人類歷史的認知。 大衛‧克里斯欽：我對大歷史能否蓬勃發展深具信心，部分是因為它顯然是有這樣的本事，就像完形轉換（gestalt switch），可以協助學生與學者用新的方式來關照熟悉的事物。另一個讓我深具信心的原因，就在於過去二十多年來，有一小群協助建構起這個領域的學者所奉獻的精力、智慧、慷慨與冒險精神。建構大歷史，還真的是集體學習的具體實踐。