David Christian (historian)
{{short description|British American historian}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox academic
| honorific_prefix =
| name = David Christian
| honorific_suffix =
| image =
| image_size =
| alt =
| caption =
| native_name =
| native_name_lang =
| birth_name = David Gilbert Christian
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1946|12|08|mf= yes}}
| birth_place = New York, N.Y. USA
| death_date =
| death_place =
| death_cause =
| nationality =
| citizenship =
| other_names =
| occupation = Historian
| period =
| known_for =
| title =
| boards =
| spouse =
| partner =
| children =
| parents =
| relatives =
| awards = World History Association
Book Prize Maps of Time (2005)
| website = https://researchers.mq.edu.au/en/persons/david-christian
| education = Oxford University
B.A., D. Phil (1974)
University of Western Ontario
M.A.
| alma_mater = Oxford University
| thesis_title =
| thesis_url =
| thesis_year =
| school_tradition =
| doctoral_advisor =
| academic_advisors =
| influences = William H. McNeill{{cite book |last1=Christian |first1=David |title=Maps of Time: An Introduction to Big History |date=2004 |publisher=University of California Press |location=xxi |isbn=0-520-23500-2}}
| era =
| discipline = History
| sub_discipline = Big History
History of Russia
| workplaces = Macquarie University in Sydney
San Diego State University
| doctoral_students =
| notable_students =
| main_interests =
| notable_works = Maps of Time
| notable_ideas = Pioneering the field of Big History
| influenced =
| signature =
| signature_alt =
| signature_size =
| footnotes =
}}
David Gilbert Christian (born June 30, 1946), a historian and scholar of Russian history, has become notable for teaching and promoting the emerging discipline of Big History.{{cite news
| author= Vanessa Thorpe
| title= Big History theories pose latest challenge to traditional curriculum: Maverick academic's 'Big History' – which is backed by Bill Gates – is subject of new documentary
| work= The Guardian
| quote= Big History, a movement spearheaded by the Oxford-educated maverick historian David Christian,....
| date= 27 October 2012
| url= https://www.theguardian.com/education/2012/oct/28/big-history-bill-gates-david-christian
| access-date= 2012-12-13
| author= Emily Eakin
| title= For Big History, The Past Begins At the Beginning
| work= The New York Times
| date= January 12, 2002
| url= https://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/12/arts/for-big-history-the-past-begins-at-the-beginning.html
| access-date= 2012-12-13
}} In 1989 he began teaching the first course on the topic, examining history from the Big Bang to the present using a multidisciplinary approach{{cite news
| author= Ursula Goodenough
| title= It's Time For A New Narrative; It's Time For 'Big History'
| publisher= NPR
| date= February 10, 2011
| url= https://www.npr.org/blogs/13.7/2011/02/10/133652898/its-time-for-a-new-narrative-its-time-for-big-history
| access-date= 2012-12-13
}} with the assistance of scholars in diverse specializations from the sciences, social sciences, and humanities.{{cite news
| author= Patricia Cohen
| title= History That's Written in Beads as Well as in Words
| work= The New York Times
| date= September 26, 2011
| url= https://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/27/arts/deep-history-takes-humanity-back-to-its-origins.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
| access-date= 2012-12-13
}} Big History frames human history in terms of cosmic, geological, and biological history. Christian is credited with coining the term Big History{{cite news
| author = Craig Benjamin of Grand Valley State University
| author-link = Craig Benjamin
| title = Recent Developments in Big History
| work = History of Science Society
| quote = Vol. 41, No. 3,
| date = July 2012
| url = http://www.hssonline.org/publications/Newsletter2012/July-big-history.html
| access-date = 2012-12-13
| url-status = dead
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130109012654/http://www.hssonline.org/publications/Newsletter2012/July-big-history.html
| archive-date = 2013-01-09
| title= Mankind: The Story of All of Us
| work= BBC History Magazine
| quote= ...a series informed by ideas around ‘big history’, David Christian’s notion that we should look for common themes and patterns .....
| date= November 14, 2012
| url= http://www.historyextra.com/tv-and-radio/mankind-story-all-us
| access-date= 2012-12-31
| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20171002023431/http://www.historyextra.com/tv-and-radio/mankind-story-all-us
| archive-date= October 2, 2017
| url-status= dead
}} and he serves as president of the International Big History Association.{{cite news
| author= Rev. Michael Dowd
| title= Big History Hits the Big Time
| work= HuffPost
| date= May 8, 2012
| url= http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rev-michael-dowd/big-news-about-big-histor_b_1477137.html
| access-date= 2012-12-13
}} Christian's best-selling Teaching Company course entitled Big History caught the attention of philanthropist Bill Gates, who is funding Christian's efforts to develop a program to bring the course to secondary-school students worldwide.
Early life
Christian was born in Brooklyn, New York, to British and American parents. He grew up in Nigeria and England. He completed his pre-university education at Atlantic College, an international sixth form in Wales.{{Cite book|last=Christian|first=David|title=Origin Story: A Big History of Everything}} He then earned his B.A. from Oxford University, an M.A. in Russian history from the University of Western Ontario, and a Ph.D. in nineteenth century Russian history from Oxford University in 1974.{{cite web
|title = Professor David Christian
|work = Macquarie University
|url = http://www.mq.edu.au/about_us/faculties_and_departments/faculty_of_arts/mhpir/modern_history/staff/professor_david_christian/
|access-date = 2012-12-31
|url-status = dead
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130108082723/http://www.mq.edu.au/about_us/faculties_and_departments/faculty_of_arts/mhpir/modern_history/staff/professor_david_christian/
|archive-date = 2013-01-08
Academic career
Christian's early research interests focused on the history of Russia and the Soviet Union, with particular emphases on the Russian peasantry, including their diet and the role of vodka in their lives. He published several books on these subjects. In 1984, he co-wrote, along with R. E. F. Smith, a history about the Russian peasantry entitled Bread and Salt that showed, among other things, how such foods along with dairy products were used as seasonings.{{cite news
|title= Communism Knew Diversity Before Gorbachev...
|work= The New York Times
|quote= ...As R. E. F. Smith and David Christian showed in 1984, in Bread and Salt, even dairy products were generally used as seasoning.....
|date= February 12, 1989
|url= https://www.nytimes.com/1989/02/12/opinion/l-communism-knew-diversity-before-gorbachev-russian-peasant-s-diet-602689.html
|access-date= 2012-12-31
}} He taught at Macquarie University in Sydney from 1975 to 2000.
During the 1980s, he read widely and began a program to describe human history in the context of very large time scales from cosmology and astronomy, covering the almost fourteen billion years since the Big Bang. He began teaching his first course, what he described as Big History, in 1989.{{cite web
|title= Speakers David Christian: Historian
|work= TED
|quote= ...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.
|date= 2012-12-30
|url= http://www.ted.com/speakers/david_christian.html
}} It was a novel approach that emphasizes summary findings from biology, cosmology, astronomy, geology, and anthropology to show what happened before homo sapiens became prevalent on the Earth. Generally, humans are not mentioned much in the course until halfway through the 15-week semester. He wrote the book Maps of Time that mirrored the course content. The course was chosen by The Teaching Company's Great Courses and Christian recorded 48 half-hour lectures.{{cite web
|url=http://www.thegreatcourses.com/tgc/courses/course_detail.aspx?cid=8050
|title=Big History: The Big Bang, Life on Earth, and the Rise of Humanity
|publisher=The Teaching Company's Great Courses
|access-date=15 May 2013 }}
In 1998 he published A History of Russia, Central Asia and Mongolia in which he studied the steppe and forest peoples of Inner Eurasia as opposed to 'outer Eurasia' – the crescent of agrarian civilizations from Europe, the Middle East, and India to China.
Christian transferred to San Diego State University in California in 2001. He taught students in subjects such as world history and the history of the environment, as well as the history of Inner Eurasia. In 2005, his 600-page book Maps of Time was published, which a reviewer described as a "remarkable work of synthesis and scholarship." Christian has additional teaching affiliations with the University of Vermont and Ewha Womans University in Seoul. In 2009, he transferred back to Macquarie University.{{cite news
|author= Stephen Pritchard
|title= For the record
|work= The Observer
|quote= Prof Christian ... left for San Diego in 2001 but returned to Macquarie in 2009.
|date= 3 November 2012
|url= https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2012/nov/04/for-the-record
|access-date= 2012-12-31
}}
In 2010, Christian predicted that historical scholarship would have less emphasis on document-based research and more on empirical research, and he wrote:{{cite news
|author= David Christian
|title= The Return of Universal History
|work= History and Theory
|volume= 49
|pages= 6–27
|quote= ...Today, however, there are many signs of a return to universal history...
|date= December 2010
|url= http://www.historyandtheory.org/archives/indx4650.html
|access-date= 2012-12-31
|archive-date= 5 September 2012
|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120905205543/http://www.historyandtheory.org/archives/indx4650.html
|url-status= dead
}}
{{Blockquote|...Over the next fifty years we will see a return of the ancient tradition of "universal history"; but this will be a new form of universal history that is global in its practice and scientific in its spirit and methods.|David Christian in History and Theory, 2010}}
Philanthropist Bill Gates presented David Christian at the TED 2011 Conference in Long Beach, California. At that time, Christian announced his Big History Project initiative to teach the subject to secondary school students in Australia and the United States. Currently, he is serving as president of the International Big History Association.
Awards and honors
- 1999: Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities{{Cite web |title=Fellow Profile: David Christian |url=https://humanities.org.au/fellows/fellow-profile/?fellow_id=99 |access-date=2024-05-01 |website=Australian Academy of the Humanities |language=en-AU}}
- 2005: World History Association Book Prize, Maps of Time
- 2014: Distinguished Professor, Macquarie University{{cite web |title=A mark of distinction |website=This Week at Macquarie University |date=2014-10-07 |url=http://www.mq.edu.au/thisweek/2014/10/07/a-mark-of-distinction/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303234312/http://www.mq.edu.au/thisweek/2014/10/07/a-mark-of-distinction/ |archive-date=2016-03-03 |url-status=dead}}
Publications
- Bread and Salt: A Social and Economic History of Food and Drink in Russia, 1984, co-written with R. E. F. Smith{{cite news
|author= Roger Munting and Stephen Rashid
|title= REF Smith obituary
|work= The Guardian
|quote= ...His last monograph ... jointly written with David Christian...
|date= 4 July 2010
|url= https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2010/jul/05/ref-smith-obituary
|access-date= 2012-12-31
}}
- A History of Russia, Central Asia and Mongolia, volume 1, 1998
- Maps of Time: An Introduction to Big History, 2005, University of California Press{{cite news
|author= PD Smith
|title= Time and headspace
|work= The Guardian
|quote= ...Christian has written a history of Wellsian scale, travelling from the physics of the Big Bang to our current nuclear age...
|date= 6 May 2005
|url= https://www.theguardian.com/books/2005/may/07/featuresreviews.guardianreview25
|access-date= 2012-12-31
}}
- Big History: Between Nothing and Everything, first edition, 2014, McGraw-Hill Education (co-written by Cynthia Stokes Brown and Craig Benjamin)
- Origin Story: A Big History of Everything, 2018, Little, Brown and Company, {{ISBN|9780316392006}}
- "Future Stories: What's Next", 2022, Little, Brown Spark.
See also
References
{{Reflist|2}}
External links
- {{TED speaker}}
- [http://www.ted.com/talks/david_christian_big_history TED Talk: David Christian: The history of our world in 18 minutes (TED2011)]
- [https://archive.today/20120912232007/http://www.teach12.com/ttcx/CourseDescLong2.aspx?cid=8050 Big History: The Big Bang, Life on Earth, and the Rise of Humanity] The Teaching Company course taught by David Christian
{{Big History}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Christian, David}}
Category:Alumni of the University of Oxford
Category:21st-century American historians
Category:21st-century American male writers
Category:Academic staff of Macquarie University
Category:San Diego State University faculty
Category:University of Western Ontario alumni
Category:American expatriates in Nigeria
Category:Educators from Brooklyn
Category:People educated at Atlantic College
Category:Historians from New York (state)
Category:American male non-fiction writers
Category:Fellows of the Australian Academy of the Humanities