The Little Book of Big History by Crofton, Ian -- Read -- Imperial Library of Trantor

Index

Cover Title Contents Part One: Setting the Scene

Timeline In the beginning The birth and death of stars The Goldilocks zone The restless Earth Shaping the surface What is life? Where does the energy come from? Life gets complicated How life carries on The origin of species The blueprint of life

Part Two: Animal Planet

Timeline The first animals Life comes ashore The age of the dinosaurs Mass extinctions The coming of the mammals Where do we come from?

Part Three: Humans Start to Dominate

Timeline Humans past and present What makes humans human? Culture How humans populated the world The impact of the ice From scavenger to hunter Fire Hunter-gatherer technologies Language Kinship Early religion The beginning of art Shelter Clothing Pottery The first farmers Domesticating animals Putting animals to work The wheel Nomads From stone to bronze From bronze to iron

Part Four: Civilization

Timeline Early trade routes The birth of cities Transport From barter to money Paper money Credit, debt and investment Writing Law Ancient empires Why empires fall Polytheism and monotheism Epics Writing history The nature of reality What is the good life? The beginnings of science Disease pandemics Europe in transition Land, labour and power Clashes of civilizations

Part Five: The Rise of the West

Timeline Renaissance and Reformation The long road to toleration Printing The Scientific Revolution Europe expands The Enlightenment The Industrial Revolution The Agricultural Revolution The social contract From mercantilism to free-market capitalism Nationalism and the nation Urbanization Expanding horizons The peak of imperialism Trade unions, socialism and communism

Part Six: The Modern World

Timeline Modernism in the arts Towards gender equality Revolutions in science Fighting disease The road to world war Industrialized slaughter Versailles and its outcomes Revolutions World economic collapse Totalitarianism Total war Genocide The nuclear age The Cold War Life after the Cold War The information revolution The promises of bioscience Internationalism, globalization and the future of the nation-state Population Migration Economic developments Environmental problems The future of humanity The fate of the universe

Picture acknowledgements Index Copyright