A Brief History of the Last 13.8 Billion Years: a journey through life, the universe, and everything

by David Baker, John Green (Foreword)

How did time begin? What conditions led to humans evolving on Earth? Will we survive the Anthropocene? And is it really true that we’re all made from stars?

Combining knowledge from chemistry, biology, and physics, with insights from the social sciences and humanities, A Brief History of the Last 13.8 Billion Years follows the continuum of historical change in the cosmos — from the Big Bang, through the evolution of life, to human history.

In this compelling and revealing book, David Baker traces the rise of complexity in the cosmos, from the first atoms to the first life and then to humans and the things we have made. He shows us how simple clumps of hydrogen gas transformed into complex human societies. This approach — Big History — allows us to see beyond the chaos of human affairs to the overall trajectory. Finally, Baker looks at the dramatic and sudden changes we’re making to our planet and its biosphere and how history hints at what might come next.

234 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 13, 2022

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

[Stories_to_telllll(Priscilla)]

200𝙩𝙝 𝙋𝙊𝙎𝙏
🌌 𝙱𝚘𝚘𝚔 - 𝚃𝙷𝙴 𝚂𝙷𝙾𝚁𝚃𝙴𝚂𝚃 𝙷𝙸𝚂𝚃𝙾𝚁𝚈 𝙾𝙵 𝚃𝙷𝙴 𝚄𝙽𝙸𝚅𝙴𝚁𝚂𝙴
🌌𝙰𝚞𝚝𝚑𝚘𝚛 - 𝙳𝙰𝚅𝙸𝙳 𝙱𝙰𝙺𝙴𝚁
🌌 𝙿𝚞𝚋𝚕𝚒𝚜𝚑𝚎𝚛 - 𝙿𝙸𝙲𝙰𝙳𝙾𝚁 𝙸𝙽𝙳𝙸𝙰 (𝙿𝙰𝙽 𝙼𝙰𝙲𝙼𝙸𝙻𝙻𝙰𝙽 𝙸𝙽𝙳𝙸𝙰)
🌌 𝙿𝚊𝚐𝚎𝚜 - 244
🌌 𝙶𝚎𝚗𝚛𝚎 - 𝙽𝚘𝚗-𝚏𝚒𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗, 𝚂𝚌𝚒𝚎𝚗𝚌𝚎, 𝙷𝚒𝚜𝚝𝚘𝚛𝚢,𝚂𝚙𝚊𝚌𝚎, 𝚄𝚗𝚒𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚜𝚎
🌌 𝚁𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚜 - 4.8/5

If someone asks us about how universe was created the first thing that comes to most of our mind is the 'Big Bang' but what are the evidences which validate Big Bang.
Do you know the colour of the universe ?
What conditions led to evolution ?
Most of us more or less know about our history but what about our future ? What is going to happen in the next few billion/million years later ?
If you want to know the answers of these questions and lot more then this is the right book.
This book is sectioned into four parts. First is the INANIMATE PHASE which discusses about the birth of universe, time, galaxies, stars, oceans etc. The unique part is that the author not only told us about the Big Bang, he also provided enough facts and proofs to solidify the authenticity of the Big Bang.
The second part deals with ANIMATE PHASE which includes the evolution of human beings through a long period of time.
The third section is about the CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT (PHASE) which includes migration and formations of various colonis, agricultural development, rise and decline of empires, pandemics and their effects, exploration, rise in writing, beginning of the use of alcohol and lot more.
The final part which is the most interesting part for me is THE UNKNOWN PHASE. In this section, the author provided an account of the theories of our possible future of our civilization,our galaxy and the whole universe,technological breakthroughs etc.
I absolutely enjoyed reading our past, present and future within 250 pages. All the informations are very specific and is written in a captivating manner which make it a quick read. I definitely recommend this book to everyone especially if you are interested in these kind of stuffs.

[Neli]

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this fantastic overview of the history (and projected futures) of our planet. Even being a scientist myself, many if not most of the content was new and intriguing to me. I loved to see the connections between historical events that I previously saw as unrelated, I was grasped by the musings on the futures we can expect, my eyes were opened to the paradigm of the second law of thermodynamics (entropy) ruling everything in our lives and universe. I highly recommend reading this essay.

[shuut]

depression