Σύντομη ιστορία του κόσμου

Shortest History

by David Baker, Γιώργος Μαραγκός (Translator)

Σε αυτή την πανοραμική θεώρηση του κόσμου, ο David Baker καταγράφει τις ιστορικές μεταβολές στο Σύμπαν, αποκαλύπτοντας την τεράστια αύξηση της πολυπλοκότητας που συνοδεύει κάθε εξελικτική φάση του παρελθόντος, του παρόντος και του μέλλοντός μας.

Καθώς συνδυάζει γνώσεις από τη φυσική, τη χημεία, τη βιολογία και άλλες επιστήμες, ο διακεκριμένος ιστορικός μάς βοηθάει να δούμε πέρα από τα στενά όρια και το χάος των ανθρώπινων προβλημάτων, απαντώντας στο θεμελιώδες ερώτημα: Από πού προερχόμαστε και πού πηγαίνουμε;

Ο David Baker μας αφηγείται όχι μόνο την ιστορία
του είδους και του πλανήτη μας
αλλά και την ιστορία του τεράστιου Σύμπαντός μας.
Δεν είμαστε το τέλος αυτής της ιστορίας ούτε και η αρχή της –
έχουμε εμφανιστεί στη μέση μιας αφήγησης
που θα συνεχιστεί για πολύ μετά τη δική μας εξαφάνιση.
John Green, συγγραφέας

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Science, Evolution

320 pages, Paperback

Published February 6, 2024

About the author

David Baker came to Australia in 2010 to study his PhD in History of Science and Cliodynamics. He was previously a lecturer at Macquarie University and the University of Amsterdam, and is visiting Lecturer at the Sorbonne University in Paris. He is now a history, science, and true crime writer for the Simon Whistler network.

Reviews

[Mark Porton · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Shortest History of the world by David Baker is just the sort of book I like.

The author takes us from 13.8 billion years ago at the Big Bang all the way to the end of the Universe in 10 to the power of 40 years from now. That is an amazingly MASSIVE number – I almost vomited trying to get my mind around that number of years. He accomplishes this in just over 240 pages.

The author breaks the book down into:

1 The inanimate phase: 13.8 billion to 3.8 billion years ago.
2 The animate phase: 3.8 billion to 315,000 years ago.
3 The cultural phase: 315,000 years to the present.
4 From the present to the future, near, deep and the end.

If you look at the previous passage, you will notice how little time we have been here and how insignificant we are in the overall scheme of things. It has taken us billions of years to show up, and we’ve been around for only 300,000 years and we will probably disappear in less than that time. Thereafter, Mother Earth and the Universe will trundle on for thousands of billions of years until it finally expires.

The themes the author uses consistently throughout are:

1 Complexity of society (there’s an interesting cycle described here).
2 The energy flows of that society/organism/being.
3 Communal learning (how we develop and innovate).

This above provides a nice framework for this author to express and make sense of some of the complex issues discussed here.

This is an intelligent book, professionally written, and it obviously moves fast – very fast. But to pull off something like this in such a short book is an impressive feat.

Our planet has already been through a lot – fire and ice, wet and dry, extreme violence, hot and cold – there will be plenty more to come, to be sure.

The author does close on a lovely note by saying “Be brave, be good to each other”.

For the short time we are here, individually and as a species, amongst all the complexity and pushing and shoving, I couldn’t think of a better way to finish. Much love to all ❤️🎈

4 Stars

[Ahmed Sanny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, the title doesn't suit the contents. According to the title it supposes to cover - the history of the world, but it covers - the history of the known universe. In short, enjoyed it.

[Terence S · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall, this book was really quite enjoyable. The author, David Baker, takes an engaging and often humorous look at how we got to the present, all the way from the birth of the Universe, via the formation of the Earth and the evolution of life from one cell to a modern human society. However, I feel that the book’s focus on being a short history of the world does seem at odds with its broad scope, and that means some chapters are left wanting in terms of detail.

Baker’s presentation style, mixing science, anthropology and history with interesting facts and a healthy dose of humour, does well at making this book accessible to almost anyone, even if they don’t have much of a background in science or human history. His explanations are clear and easy to understand, and I particularly liked his use of diagrams to show the ways energy is exchanged through or between complex systems. The inclusion of a section regarding the potential future of the Earth and the Universe made for thought-provoking reading, and I found Baker’s predictions of the multiple different ways our universe could end to be quite interesting.

However, as mentioned earlier, the fact that this book is so short works against it. While Baker’s storytelling style makes for an engaging read, he has had to summarise a lot, particularly in the first two sections, which deal with the birth of the Universe and the evolution of life. This results in the book feeling a bit like a quick (and somewhat insubstantial) summary of science and history, as if Baker was forced to cut out a lot of the more in-depth information just to keep the word count low. Perhaps dealing only with the history of humanity (which this book covers reasonably well) would have made it for a more informative read.

I guess the best way of summarising this book is to say that I liked it, but I wanted more. If you want a quick and easy-to-understand introduction to science and anthropology, this book is worth checking out, but a lot of the explanation feels lost due to the focus on its shortness. Still, Baker’s style is funny and engaging, and his information is very interesting, so if he decided to make a Longest History of the World, I’d definitely want to check it out.

I'd give this a 3.5/5, rounded to 4 for the Goodreads star system

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is beyond what is normally meant by “history.” Baker makes a very wide sweep of the world’s history, classified into three stages: the Inanimate Phase, the Animate Phase, and the Cultural Phase, covering 13.8 billion years. He starts with describing the Big Bang in the most lucid terms, how in minutes a tiny particle exploded into the Universe as we know it. Before that there was nothing: indeed the term “before” is meaningless, a human construction on the inexplicable. He uses the growth of complexity to explain what happened since the BB, in terms of energy flow expressed as ergs/g/s. In this model of complexity, the sun rates 2, a warm blooded mammal as 20,000, a Model T Ford as 1,000,000 (see p. 32). Whatever that may mean, this scale of complexity rises dramatically through the Phases, and in the Cultural phase starting with the homo erectus, when collective learning takes place, in which knowledge is passed on and added to through the generations, dramatically increasing the complexity of human products, although homo sapiens has been the same biologically for 315,000 years. Further, Baker uses complexity predictively, showing how over all Phases there is a pattern, rise consolidation and collapse, followed by a new rise: this happened in the Cretaceous period, is happening now and will happen in future. Using this large scale, human existence is only tiny proportion of the world’s near 14 billion years of existence, so global warming is merely a passing episode in the grand scheme of things. He is optimistic over the long haul, but not so optimistic within the episode in which we ourselves currently live. Baker predicts several possible futures, from the probable to the preposterous – it all depends. This book reveals a remarkable grasp of what has been and creativity in deriving the complexity model and using it predictively. I Googled David Baker and of course found several, including a Professor of Big History, presumably this writer, who has written 469 books and thousands of articles! An amazing grasp of huge ideas.

[Twips · Rating 4 out of 5]

At some point in this midst of reading this book, I was watching an interview with Tim Minchin where he was asked if he could change the world with a magic wand, how would he change it? Among other things, he said, “do you know what? I’d probably go back, I’d go tell sapiens not to farm.”

I found that particularly funny because I had just earlier that day reached the part in this book where humans had started farming and all the bad things that had followed, and I had had the same thought myself. The amount of trouble we created for ourselves…

The Shortest History of the World is a great introduction into the genre, taking complex science and billions of years of history and delivering it in a way that doesn’t overwhelm, while adding in bits of humour and relatability. I really enjoyed my time with it and It has sparked an interest into learning more in depth about several topics covered.

Would recommend!

Bonus points for the floppy paperback edition at my library!

Review Date: 22 April 2025

[Con Kominos · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read for all students of history, science, philosophy and stuff

Highly recommend this book. A perfect summary of existence from the Big Bang to the Big Beyond. The only amendments I would suggest is replacing BC and AD when referenced to, BCE and CE.

[Kieran Bennett · Rating 2 out of 5]

Someone said "give me Bill Wurtz's History of the World, but stretch it to 25,000 words". Somewhat interesting, but the Bill Wurtz video is better.

[Simon Torbik]

I bought The Shortest History of the World last week. Jesus Christ should read it. It's that good. 5 stars.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

David Baker begins the story 13.8 billion years ago and somehow makes it all the way to the future, explaining life on earth along the way.

[Bridgette Collins · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reading Challenge Prompt #246: A non fiction book about history

[Pau · Rating 5 out of 5]

Molt interessant.

[Marcus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Useful snapshot of history, the present and predicting the future. Thought provoking.

[bookachontas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Μου θύμισε βιβλίο Βιολογίας γυμνασίου. Μάλλον δεν διάβασα σωστά τα περιεχόμενα όταν το αγόρασα. Το πουλάω στο Metabook

[Bailey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book incredibly engaging. It follows earth from the conception of the universe to the speculative near and far future. There’s levity without relentless quips as is often found in non fiction like this. The concept of following the journey as complexity increases was new but at no point did it ever feel under described or explained, like treading water where your toes can just touch the bottom with your head underwater. Thoroughly enjoyed

[Skana Gallery · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book changed my life, the way I view the world, what values I prioritise...I wish everybody would read this book.

[Gavin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic, engaging and lively look at the past, present and future of our universe. Lucid explanations of everything from physics to biology to the age of exploration.

[Juan Omario · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bastante interesante, pero se puede hacer un poco tedioso al final.