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David Christian

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David Christian


Born
in Brooklyn, NY, The United States
June 30, 1946

Twitter
davidgchristian

Genre
History, Nonfiction


David Gilbert Christian is an Anglo-American historian and scholar of Russian history notable for creating and spearheading an interdisciplinary approach known as Big History. He grew up in Africa and in England, where he earned his B.A. from Oxford University, an M.A. in Russian history from the University of Western Ontario, and a Ph.D. in 19th century Russian history from Oxford University in 1974.

He began teaching the first course in 1989 which examined history from the Big Bang to the present using a multidisciplinary approach with assistance from scholars in diverse specializations from the sciences, social sciences, and humanities. The course frames human history in terms of cosmic, geological, and biological history. He is credited ...more

Combine Editions

Average rating: 4.04 · 10,448 ratings · 1,084 reviews · 71 distinct works • Similar authors
Origin Story: A Big History...
4.06 avg rating — 7,581 ratings — published 2008 — 2 editions
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Maps of Time: An Introducti...
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4.07 avg rating — 991 ratings — published 2004 — 22 editions
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Big History: The Big Bang, ...
4.42 avg rating — 555 ratings
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This Fleeting World: A Shor...
3.41 avg rating — 666 ratings — published 2007 — 24 editions
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Future Stories: What's Next?
3.62 avg rating — 220 ratings — published 2022 — 16 editions
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Big History: Between Nothin...
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4.32 avg rating — 74 ratings
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Footwork Wins Fights: The F...
4.07 avg rating — 45 ratings — 5 editions
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A History of Russia, Centra...
3.84 avg rating — 45 ratings — published 1998 — 6 editions
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The Cambridge World History...
4.17 avg rating — 23 ratings — published 2015 — 5 editions
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A History of Russia, Centra...
4.21 avg rating — 14 ratings — published 2018 — 3 editions
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"A generation which ignores history has no past and no future."   This famous quotation, from science fiction grand master Robert A. Heinlein,...
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Quotes by David Christian  (?)
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“Knowledge is like a sphere; the greater its volume, the larger its contact with the unknown.”
― David Christian, Origin Story: A Big History of Everything
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“As an anonymous wit is supposed to have put it: "Hydrogen is a light, odorless gas which, given enough time, changes into people.”
― David Christian, Maps of Time: An Introduction to Big History
tags: evolution, humor, science
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“For the first time there appeared on earth kings, dictators, high priests, emperors, prime ministers, presidents, governors, mayors, generals, admirals, police chiefs, judges, lawyers, and jailers, along with dungeons, jails, penitentiaries, and concentration camps. Under the tutelage of the state, human beings learned for the first time how to bow, grovel, kneel, and kowtow. In many ways the rise of the state was the descent of the world from freedom to slavery.”
― David Christian, Maps of Time: An Introduction to Big History (California World History Library Book 2)
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