ABSTRACT
A typical big history course starts at the Big Bang and proceeds through the formation of galaxies and stars, gradually narrowing to a single star system, and then looking at the formation of a single planet, then narrowing still further to look at the creation and spread of the living organisms that inhabit that planet, and it ultimately culminates with the impact and possible future of a single species amongst those life-forms. In short, it starts with everything, but ends with human beings. In the early part of the course billions of years are covered per class, then later millions, then tens of thousands, and by the end the focus narrows to thousands or even mere centuries. To a purest, this is a violation of the very essence of big history, which seeks to understand the history of everything, and to put everything in its proper context. Imagine a course on the Twentieth Century that finished with the first sixty years in the first two weeks, three more decades in the next two weeks, and by the second half of the course was entirely focused on the later parts of 1999, eventually narrowing to single hours and even minutes in the final day of the century.
