David Christian is by training a historian of Russia and the Soviet Union, but since the 1980s he has become interested in world history on very large scales. He has written on the social and material history of the 19th-century Russian peasantry, in particular on aspects of diet and the role of alcohol. In 1989, he began teaching courses on "Big History," surveying the past on the largest possible scales, including those of biology and astronomy.
Christian is a member of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. Over the next few years he will also be working with the support of Bill Gates to create an online course in "Big History" for high school students.
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David Christian had little idea what was in store when he stepped on the set of The Colbert Report last month. Having lived in Australia for years, Christian wasn’t familiar with the show and its special brand of political satire. And yet, sitting across the table from Stephen Colbert — a perfectly placed Colbert Nation […]
Continue readingTo truly understand human history, David Christian wants you to take a step back -- 13.7 billion years back. We asked Christian about the impact that his wide-lens concept of Big History has made since his 2011 TED Talk.
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