Big Ideas A Guide to the History of Everything

In Big Ideas: A Guide to the History of Everything, Cameron Gibelyou and Doug Northrop create a novel framework for thinking about the history and future of everything. Throughout the book, they grapple with issues at the intersection of the natural sciences, history, literature, philosophy, religion, and the humanities. In nine elegantly written chapters, Gibelyou and Northrup aim to make a reasoned analysis of worldviews that underlie historical writing across many fields. In the course of their broad and deep explorations they bring a wide range of voices to bear on fascinating questions of where everything--from the universe as a whole to any particular thing within it--came from, how it got to be the way it is today, and where things might be headed in the future. Big History invites readers to think about genuinely big questions carefully and rigorously, separating received narratives about the "history of everything" from the basic facts revealed by scientific and historical study. Their aim is to treat scientific explanation and humanistic interpretation as partners: inviting those with primarily scientific interests into a humanistic discussion about science and history, and encouraging those with core interests in the humanities into a discussion of how humanities-based ways of thinking might connect with and apply to the natural sciences. This engagement helps readers learn a basic narrative of the "history of everything" while constantly provoking thought about big questions and the field of Big History.

Cameron Gibelyou is a faculty member at the University of Michigan, where he develops and teaches original, innovative multidisciplinary courses, including "Popular Science," "Predicting the Future," and "Tours of the Past." He has taught Big History at both the high-school and college levels and serves as science advisor and teacher consultant for the Big History Project. His PhD is in physics, with a specialization in astrophysics and cosmology. Douglas Northrop is Professor of History and Middle East Studies at the University of Michigan, where he teaches world/global and Big History, Central Asian studies, and the history of empire, environment, and culture. His other books include An Imperial World: Empires and Colonies Since 1750 (Pearson, 2013), A Companion to World History (Wiley-Blackwell, 2012), and the prize-winning Veiled Empire: Gender and Power in Stalinist Central Asia (Cornell University Press, 2004). He is now working on a study of natural disasters along the Eurasian frontier.