A Short History Of Nearly Everything Summary

We are only a brief second in the long history of the universe; many things have preceded us to make us the most complex creatures that ever walked the Earth. We are a “new level of complexity” which makes us different from all other creatures that have come before us. Our species has only been around for 250,000 years, a short time compared to the formation of the Earth at 4.5 billion years ago and the creation of the Universe at 13.7 billion years ago, but the time we have had on this Earth has greatly affected the outcome of history. In an attempt to provide an overview of human history in his book This Fleeting World, David Christian introduces it in the context of the history of the universe and then systematically breaks it down

The Origins of the Modern World by Robert B. Marks is a book about the historical changes that have happened in the period of 1400-1850. He shows that how Asia is the center prior of the 1800s not the standard Eurocentric and it 's a polycentric world in term of the world trade. In the Origins, he focuses on the economic history where geographical on China, India, and England. In the beginning of the book he starts with a summary of "Rise of the West" where he say " the west as dynamic, forward looking, progressive, and free, and Asia as stagnating, backward, and despotic. After that he started building up or narrating the historical events in five-chapters based on an his vision of the world history, and he does it in a way that makes the reader agree with him to get the main key of the historical concept such as conjuncture. Also he takes about the most advanced societies across the Eurasian (China and England) and the two economic structures ( biological old regime and trading networks). He also takes the importance of the Indian ocean and he sees it as the "most important crossroads for global exchanges of goods, ideas, and culture" when Europe was " a peripheral, marginal player trying desperately to gain access to the sources of wealth generated in Asia. He brings a very good evidence that pictures the traditional China 's technological and Naval superiority, of the "well-developed market system" in Asia. Also he showed he superior quality of the Indian cottons and the

This Fleeting World is a small summary of ‘big history’. David Christian’s book is a mere 92 pages long with an included 9-page prequel (on topics during the first years without humans such as Earth’s creation and more) and 16-page appendix on the book’s use in school, historical periodization, and a 4-page list of sources. With around 120 pages, this short book seems to be the perfect size to represent how our species’ history is only miniscule fraction compared to the history of that around us. In a world that has been around for over four and a half billion years old (6) in a universe that is 13.8 billion years old (1), homo sapiens have been around for only approximately 250,000 of those years (9). It seems impossible, though, to fit those hundreds of thousands of years into the modest text. However, Christian does the impossible and makes a well written short ‘big history’. Where many other historians before him have failed at making one, Christian’s book, This Fleeting World, summarizes history from the big-bang all

In “Defining Life”, Josh Gabbatiss expresses the difficulty of distinguishing between the living and the inanimate, and examines various attempts at this age-old yet still developing struggle through the perspectives of virology, chemistry, astro-biology, technology, and philosophy. “Defining Life” is contextualized by an extensive history of deliberation by both modern and historical figures such as Aristotle and Carl Sagan, and institutions such as NASA and the Christian Church. The relevance of this article is also shown through current advancements in physical and life sciences, engineering, and philosophical

The author, Robert B. Marks introduces the book, The Origins of the Modern World by introducing the reader to a global narrative of the origins of the modern world starting from 1400 to the present. The book presents the rise of the west as an issue of globalization of Asia, Africa, and the New World. Throughout the book, we see the connection made by the author between the environmental condition and the present economic status of a particular place. By the end of the book, readers are able to understand and reason out what created and solidified a gap between the east and the west, industrialized and non-industrialized and parts of the world that today are defined as the modern world.

In reading a Little History of the World by E.H. Gombrich you realize that history seems so much less complicated when you are the one standing back and reflecting on the past. You realize how easy it is to often forget that every single new idea, religion and war was a struggle that lasted generations upon generations. History is more than just a page or a story, its our account of the world. That goes to show how short life and history is, you realize that history is always repeating, war after war, peace then war. There are good and bad periods in history and its up to us to learn from them. In a way history is much like a human being it goes through stages, learns about life, and has inner struggles or wars about their ideas and their beliefs.

In History: A Very Short Introduction, Arnold weaves together various anecdotes including a 14th century murder, an epic regarding the corybantic slaughter of cats in France, the varying accounts of a Sojourner Truth speech, and many more stories to emphasize why history matters and the problems inherent in its recording. Throughout his novel, he contests the stance taken by Thucydides, a notable Greek historian. Thucydides lived from 460 BCE to 400 BCE and was famous for his work, The History of the Peloponnesian War, which recounted the conflict between Athens and Sparta. Thucydides firmly believed that history was meant to solely record the stories of politics, the state and great men — a belief that John Arnold throughly opposes. With his beliefs and narratives, he created a precedent that negatively influenced historiography for many years to come, for historians chose to disregard the lives and stories of the common man. It was this precedent that the historian Arnaldo Momigliano referred to as Thucydides’ Tower. “Arnaldo Momigliano (a modern author) remarked that having shut himself up in this tower of political history, Thucydides wanted to confine all of us there too” (34). The idea of Thucydides’ Tower itself refers to a metaphorical prison out of which historians could only see politics, war and the actions of great men; Looking out from the tower, their vision was far too narrow to see the lives and stories of the everyday man. Indeed, if Arnold wished to have a

1. Coffee originated in Europe by the expansion of “Age of Exploration” opening new ideas with criticism, tolerance, and freedom of thought.

In the beginning of the Paleolithic Era, bands of humans progressively migrated from East Africa to Eurasia, Australia, and then to the Americas while adapting to their new regions. During the Paleolithic era, hominids used crude tools like clubs and choppers to crack open bones, simple axes, and scrapers to prepare animal hides. As the years went on the Neanderthal, Cro-Magnon, and Homo sapiens amended these tools and created new ones. They made these tools so that they can provide shelter, protection, defense from other predators, food, and also clothing. As the Paleolithic era was ending, the hominids were building much more innovative wood and stone structures. They also started

D. it symbolized the fusion of Roman, German, and Christian elements which would make up medieval civilization in Europe.

        6.  What was “Project Wagonwheel”?  Who were the major participants in the controversy? What sides of the issue did each represent?  What was the final result?

Finney and Edwards raise concerns over this component of the Anthropocene. The emphasis on the beginning of the Anthropocene ignores the geological strata, which is a major component to its validity as an official epoch. According to Finney and Edwards, the Anthropocene overly emphasizes the beginning of this potential epoch, not its contents. The focus on the start leads to “the opinion that geological time scales are defined solely by their beginnings” (Finney and Edwards, 7). According to the AWG, the suggested start for the Anthropocene is 1945 (Finney and Edwards, 7). An indicator for this date is “the human human-caused atomic detonations” that resulted in the spread of atomic radiation across the planet (Zalasiewicz et al., 2230). In defining the Anthropocene based on its cause and date, and using the definition as grounds for justification as a geological time unit is where Finney and Edwards find fault. Also, the core of the concept centers at being a human caused event, which can be used to socially and politically sway

Francis Fukuyama; political scientist, economist, and author, in his article “The End of History?” discusses he rise and fall of major ideologies such as absolutism, fascism and communism, and suggests that human history should be viewed in terms of a battle of ideologies which has reached its end in the universalization of Western liberal democracy. Fukuyama concludes that the idea of Western liberal democracy has triumphed in the world through a variety of different ways and is a thriving piece of world order today. However, there are certain flaws to his argument including a US- centric view on the events of the twentieth century.

Samuel Scheffler’s “Death and the Afterlife”, provides examples in which to show that the importance of humanity as a whole is far greater then we choose to admit. The primary example is the asteroid example, in which he states: “Suppose you knew that, although you yourself would live a normal life span, the earth would be completely destroyed thirty days after your death in a collision with a giant asteroid” (Scheffler 18). By using this, he tries to argue that both our short term and long term goals will cease due to the impending demise of humanity. However, I personally do not believe that human beings will allow this to happen. In this essay, I will argue that Scheffler is incorrect in his belief that an individual’s interest in life will be lost in life due to the impending doom of humanity as a whole.

The evolution of the universe and our behaviour throughout history. I will set out to consider Laura Moriarty: Plateau (2011) and Mary Mattingly: Pull detail, (2013) in relation to “Minimal Ethics for the Anthropocene,” Joanna Zylinska, (2014). I will consider our human responsibility for the world and show the changes and composition of life through human relations and ethic towards the universe. And can we re-evaluate our minimal ethics, while there’s still time for changes.