History Big History And Metahistory

Author : David Krakauer,John Gaddis,Kenneth Pomeranz
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 322 pages
File Size : 46,6 Mb
Release : 2017-04-15
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 1545349096

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History, Big History, and Metahistory by David Krakauer,John Gaddis,Kenneth Pomeranz Pdf

What is history anyway? Most people would say it's what happened in the past, but how far back does the past extend? To the first written sources? To what other forms of evidence reveal about pre-literate civilizations? What does that term mean-an empire, a nation, a city, a village, a family, a lonely hermit somewhere? Why stop with people: shouldn't history also comprise the environment in which they exist, and if so on what scale and how far back? And as long as we're headed in that direction, why stop with the earth and the solar system? Why not go all the way back to the Big Bang itself? There's obviously no consensus on how to answer these questions, but even asking them raises another set of questions about history: who should be doing it? Traditionally trained historians, for whom archives are the only significant source? Historians willing to go beyond archives, who must therefore rely on, and to some extent themselves become, psychologists, sociologists, anthropologists, archeologists? But if they're also going to take environments into account, don't they also have to know something about climatology, biology, paleontology, geology, and even astronomy? And how can they do that without knowing some basic physics, chemistry, and mathematics?This inaugural volume of the SFI Press (the new publishing arm of the Santa Fe Institute) attempts to address these questions via thoughtful essays on history written by distinguished scholars-including Nobel laureate Murray Gell-Mann-from across a wide range of fields.

Author : David Christian,Douglas H. Erwin,Murray Gell-Mann,Geoffrey H. Harpham,J. R. McNeill,Fred Spier,Peter Turchin,Geerat J. Vermeij,Geoffrey B. West
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 307 pages
File Size : 51,7 Mb
Release : 2017-09-15
Category : Complexity (Philosophy)
ISBN : 1947864025

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History, Big History, and Metahistory by David Christian,Douglas H. Erwin,Murray Gell-Mann,Geoffrey H. Harpham,J. R. McNeill,Fred Spier,Peter Turchin,Geerat J. Vermeij,Geoffrey B. West Pdf

What is history anyway? Most people would say it¿s what happened in the past, but how far back does the past extend? To the first written sources? To what other forms of evidence reveal about pre-literate civilizations? What does that term mean¿an empire, a nation, a city, a village, a family, a lonely hermit somewhere? Why stop with people: shouldn¿t history also comprise the environment in which they exist, and if so on what scale and how far back? And as long as we¿re headed in that direction, why stop with the earth and the solar system? Why not go all the way back to the Big Bang itself? There¿s obviously no consensus on how to answer these questions, but even asking them raises another set of questions about history: who should be doing it? Traditionally trained historians, for whom archives are the only significant source? Historians willing to go beyond archives, who must therefore rely on, and to some extent themselves become, psychologists, sociologists, anthropologists, archeologists? But if they¿re also going to take environments into account, don¿t they also have to know something about climatology, biology, paleontology, geology, and even astronomy? And how can they do that without knowing some basic physics, chemistry, and mathematics? This inaugural volume of the SFI Press (the new publishing arm of the Santa Fe Institute) attempts to address these questions via thoughtful essays on history written by distinguished scholars¿including Nobel laureate Murray Gell-Mann¿from across a wide range of fields.

Author : Hayden White
Publisher : JHU Press
Page : 483 pages
File Size : 43,7 Mb
Release : 2014-12-04
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9781421415604

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Metahistory by Hayden White Pdf

Since its initial publication in 1973, Hayden White’s Metahistory has remained an essential book for understanding the nature of historical writing. In this classic work, White argues that a deep structural content lies beyond the surface level of historical texts. This latent poetic and linguistic content—which White dubs the "metahistorical element"—essentially serves as a paradigm for what an "appropriate" historical explanation should be. To support his thesis, White analyzes the complex writing styles of historians like Michelet, Ranke, Tocqueville, and Burckhardt, and philosophers of history such as Marx, Hegel, Nietzsche, and Croce. The first work in the history of historiography to concentrate on historical writing as writing, Metahistory sets out to deprive history of its status as a bedrock of factual truth, to redeem narrative as the substance of historicality, and to identify the extent to which any distinction between history and ideology on the basis of the presumed scientificity of the former is spurious. This fortieth-anniversary edition includes a new preface in which White explains his motivation for writing Metahistory and discusses how reactions to the book informed his later writing. In a new foreword, Michael S. Roth, a former student of White’s and the current president of Wesleyan University, reflects on the significance of the book across a broad range of fields, including history, literary theory, and philosophy. This book will be of interest to anyone—in any discipline—who takes the past as a serious object of study.

Author : David C. Krakauer,John Gaddis,Kenneth Pomeranz
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 326 pages
File Size : 55,7 Mb
Release : 2018-04-15
Category : History
ISBN : 1947864106

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History, Big History, & Metahistory by David C. Krakauer,John Gaddis,Kenneth Pomeranz Pdf

Is there a "science of history"? Must historians be scientists? What is "history" anyway? Celebrated researchers and historians--including Pulitzer-Prize winner John Lewis Gaddis and Nobel laureate Murray Gell-Mann--debate these complex questions in this thoughtful collection of essays.

Author : Hayden V. White
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 448 pages
File Size : 48,7 Mb
Release : 2014
Category : Historiography
ISBN : OCLC:1122743725

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Metahistory by Hayden V. White Pdf

Author : Ian Hesketh
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 136 pages
File Size : 47,6 Mb
Release : 2023-06-30
Category : History
ISBN : 9781009041560

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A History of Big History by Ian Hesketh Pdf

Big History is a seemingly novel approach that seeks to situate human history within a grand cosmic story of life. It claims to do so by uniting the historical sciences in order to construct a linear and accurate timeline of 'threshold moments' beginning with the Big Bang and ending with the present and future development of humanity itself. As well as examining the theory and practice of Big History, this Element considers Big History alongside previous largescale attempts to unite human and natural history, and includes comparative discussions of the practices of chronology, universal history, and the evolutionary epic.

Author : Larry Conde
Publisher : iuniverse,Inc.
Page : 120 pages
File Size : 54,8 Mb
Release : 2001
Category : History
ISBN : 059520483X

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The End of History by Larry Conde Pdf

Since the time of Herodotus historians have been trying to understand history and discover its meaning. For we know what the word history means, but we do not know the meaning of history. This problem has been studied not only by historians but also philosophers, saints, and poets. For they all realized that history has shaped our culture, our society and our very lives. So they turn to history for the answers to the exigencies that civilization faces. The terible events on September 11, 2001, have brought this home to us in a horrible way. Still, we can not only learn from history but find meaning in history. Thus, the intimations in searching for the meaning of history are filled with great potential or disaster. Consequently this essay examines the definition of history; the role of the historian; the philosophies of history; the theologies of history, particularly those of St. Augustine, Berdyaev, and Buber.

Author : Richard B. Simon
Publisher : Univ of California Press
Page : 443 pages
File Size : 51,7 Mb
Release : 2014-12-23
Category : History
ISBN : 9780520959385

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Teaching Big History by Richard B. Simon Pdf

Big History is a new field on a grand scale: it tells the story of the universe over time through a diverse range of disciplines that spans cosmology, physics, chemistry, astronomy, geology, evolutionary biology, anthropology, and archaeology, thereby reconciling traditional human history with environmental geography and natural history. Weaving the myriad threads of evidence-based human knowledge into a master narrative that stretches from the beginning of the universe to the present, the Big History framework helps students make sense of their studies in all disciplines by illuminating the structures that underlie the universe and the connections among them. Teaching Big History is a powerful analytic and pedagogical resource, and serves as a comprehensive guide for teaching Big History, as well for sharing ideas about the subject and planning a curriculum around it. Readers are also given helpful advice about the administrative and organizational challenges of instituting a general education program constructed around Big History. The book includes teaching materials, examples, and detailed sample exercises. This book is also an engaging first-hand account of how a group of professors built an entire Big History general education curriculum for first-year students, demonstrating how this thoughtful integration of disciplines exemplifies liberal education at its best and illustrating how teaching and learning this incredible story can be transformative for professors and students alike.

Author : Elena Aronova
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 254 pages
File Size : 44,8 Mb
Release : 2021-04-02
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780226761411

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Scientific History by Elena Aronova Pdf

Increasingly, scholars in the humanities are calling for a reengagement with the natural sciences. Taking their cues from recent breakthroughs in genetics and the neurosciences, advocates of “big history” are reassessing long-held assumptions about the very definition of history, its methods, and its evidentiary base. In Scientific History, Elena Aronova maps out historians’ continuous engagement with the methods, tools, values, and scale of the natural sciences by examining several waves of their experimentation that surged highest at perceived times of trouble, from the crisis-ridden decades of the early twentieth century to the ruptures of the Cold War. The book explores the intertwined trajectories of six intellectuals and the larger programs they set in motion: Henri Berr (1863–1954), Nikolai Bukharin (1888–1938), Lucien Febvre (1878–1956), Nikolai Vavilov (1887–1943), Julian Huxley (1887–1975), and John Desmond Bernal (1901–1971). Though they held different political views, spoke different languages, and pursued different goals, these thinkers are representative of a larger motley crew who joined the techniques, approaches, and values of science with the writing of history, and who created powerful institutions and networks to support their projects. In tracing these submerged stories, Aronova reveals encounters that profoundly shaped our knowledge of the past, reminding us that it is often the forgotten parts of history that are the most revealing.

Author : Fred Spier
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 41,6 Mb
Release : 2010-12-03
Category : History
ISBN : 1444395874

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Big History and the Future of Humanity by Fred Spier Pdf

Big History and the Future of Humanity presents an original theoretical approach that makes “big history” – the placing of the human past within the history of life, the Earth, and the Universe -- accessible to general readers while revealing insights into what the future may hold for humanity. Provides an accessible and original overview of the entire sweep of history that places human history within the history of life, the Earth, and the Universe Features an original theory of “big history” which explains all of history and opens up an entirely new interdisciplinary research agenda Offers new insights into the future of humanity by better understanding the past Presents a new approach to complexity studies, which takes into account the greatest galaxy clusters as well as the tiniest sub-atomic particles

Author : R. Charles Weller
Publisher : Springer
Page : 412 pages
File Size : 52,6 Mb
Release : 2017-11-06
Category : History
ISBN : 9783319620787

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21st-Century Narratives of World History by R. Charles Weller Pdf

This book makes a unique and timely contribution to world/global historical studies and related fields. It places essential world historical frameworks by top scholars in the field today in clear, direct relation to and conversation with one other, offering them opportunity to enrich, elucidate and, at times, challenge one another. It thereby aims to: (1) offer world historians opportunity to critically reflect upon and refine their essential interpretational frameworks, (2) facilitate more effective and nuanced teaching and learning in and beyond the classroom, (3) provide accessible world historical contexts for specialized areas of historical as well as other fields of research in the humanities, social sciences and sciences, and (4) promote comparative historiographical critique which (a) helps identify continuing research questions for the field of world history in particular, as well as (b) further global peace and dialogue in relation to varying views of our ever-increasingly interconnected, interdependent, multicultural, and globalized world and its shared though diverse and sometimes contested history.

Author : DK
Publisher : National Geographic Books
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 42,6 Mb
Release : 2022-05-03
Category : History
ISBN : 9780744048445

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Big History by DK Pdf

From the formation of the Universe to today, countless major events have changed the course of life on Earth. Aligned with the online Big History Project supported by Bill Gates, Big History puts a wide-angle lens on 13.8 billion years of remarkable history and shows you how and why we got where we are today. With stunning visual timelines and special CGI reconstructions, you can see history's greatest events. Look back to our origins in the stars, explore everything from the birth of the Sun to modern technology, and see what the future holds for humans. Weaving together multiple disciplines including physics and sociology, and with a foreword by TED speaker Professor David Christian, Big History is a truly unique look at the history of the world.

Author : Agathe du Crest,Martina Valković,André Ariew,Hugh Desmond,Philippe Huneman,Thomas A. C. Reydon
Publisher : Springer Nature
Page : 524 pages
File Size : 47,8 Mb
Release : 2023-06-26
Category : Science
ISBN : 9783031333583

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Evolutionary Thinking Across Disciplines by Agathe du Crest,Martina Valković,André Ariew,Hugh Desmond,Philippe Huneman,Thomas A. C. Reydon Pdf

This volume aims to clarify the epistemic potential of applying evolutionary thinking outside biology, and provides a survey of the current state of the art in research on relevant topics in the life sciences, the philosophy of science, and the various areas of evolutionary research outside the life sciences. By bringing together chapters by evolutionary biologists, systematic biologists, philosophers of biology, philosophers of social science, complex systems modelers, psychologists, anthropologists, economists, linguists, historians, and educators, the volume examines evolutionary thinking within and outside the life sciences from a multidisciplinary perspective. While the chapters written by biologists and philosophers of science address theoretical aspects of the guiding questions and aims of the volume, the chapters written by researchers from the other areas approach them from the perspective of applying evolutionary thinking to non-biological phenomena. Taken together, the chapters in this volume do not only show how evolutionary thinking can be fruitfully applied in various areas of investigation, but also highlight numerous open problems, unanswered questions, and issues on which more clarity is needed. As such, the volume can serve as a starting point for future research on the application of evolutionary thinking across disciplines.

Author : Sebastian Conrad
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 309 pages
File Size : 54,5 Mb
Release : 2016-01-12
Category : History
ISBN : 9781400880966

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What Is Global History? by Sebastian Conrad Pdf

The first comprehensive overview of the innovative new discipline of global history Until very recently, historians have looked at the past with the tools of the nineteenth century. But globalization has fundamentally altered our ways of knowing, and it is no longer possible to study nations in isolation or to understand world history as emanating from the West. This book reveals why the discipline of global history has emerged as the most dynamic and innovative field in history—one that takes the connectedness of the world as its point of departure, and that poses a fundamental challenge to the premises and methods of history as we know it. What Is Global History? provides a comprehensive overview of this exciting new approach to history. The book addresses some of the biggest questions the discipline will face in the twenty-first century: How does global history differ from other interpretations of world history? How do we write a global history that is not Eurocentric yet does not fall into the trap of creating new centrisms? How can historians compare different societies and establish compatibility across space? What are the politics of global history? This in-depth and accessible book also explores the limits of the new paradigm and even its dangers, the question of whom global history should be written for, and much more. Written by a leading expert in the field, What Is Global History? shows how, by understanding the world's past as an integrated whole, historians can remap the terrain of their discipline for our globalized present.

Author : Daniel Deudney
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 465 pages
File Size : 48,6 Mb
Release : 2020-03-02
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9780190903367

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Dark Skies by Daniel Deudney Pdf

Space is again in the headlines. E-billionaires Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk are planning to colonize Mars. President Trump wants a "Space Force" to achieve "space dominance" with expensive high-tech weapons. The space and nuclear arms control regimes are threadbare and disintegrating. Would-be asteroid collision diverters, space solar energy collectors, asteroid miners, and space geo-engineers insistently promote their Earth-changing mega-projects. Given our many looming planetary catastrophes (from extreme climate change to runaway artificial superintelligence), looking beyond the earth for solutions might seem like a sound strategy for humanity. And indeed, bolstered by a global network of fervent space advocates-and seemingly rendered plausible, even inevitable, by oceans of science fiction and the wizardly of modern cinema-space beckons as a fully hopeful path for human survival and flourishing, a positive future in increasingly dark times. But despite even basic questions of feasibility, will these many space ventures really have desirable effects, as their advocates insist? In the first book to critically assess the major consequences of space activities from their origins in the 1940s to the present and beyond, Daniel Deudney argues in Dark Skies that the major result of the "Space Age" has been to increase the likelihood of global nuclear war, a fact conveniently obscured by the failure of recognize that nuclear-armed ballistic missiles are inherently space weapons. The most important practical finding of Space Age science, also rarely emphasized, is the discovery that we live on Oasis Earth, tiny and fragile, and teeming with astounding life, but surrounded by an utterly desolate and inhospitable wilderness stretching at least many trillions of miles in all directions. As he stresses, our focus must be on Earth and nowhere else. Looking to the future, Deudney provides compelling reasons why space colonization will produce new threats to human survival and not alleviate the existing ones. That is why, he argues, we should fully relinquish the quest. Mind-bending and profound, Dark Skies challenges virtually all received wisdom about the final frontier.