A short, interesting overview of human history and what led up to it from the Big Bang onward. It's a neat approach and certainly puts us in perspective! ( )

This is the book to read to get you through the "Things You Should Have Learned in School" category in the quiz part of public radio's "Whad'Ya Know" show. At least for the history questions.
Brown calls big history "a tiny subfield of the history subspecialty of world history." Although "tiny" seems to be an odd way to describe a field that starts with the big bang and ends with the networked PC.
"Big History" could be a text for a one-semester freshman survey course that combined history, science, sociology and a few other disciplines for time as we know it, on and off this world. Brown objectively covers the rise and fall of civilizations, and their legacies. I have no doubt some will feel their area of interest got short-shrifted, but this is a remarkable effort. Brown succeeded in doing what she set out to do -- write a broad survey that's easy to read. This is not an academic tome and wasn't meant to be.
Indeed, for the well-read who did pay attention in school, "Big History" won't provide many revelations. But I sure would like my high-school age daughters to read this so I could be sure that they have a contextual grasp of life, the universe and everything.
There is also the wonderful 10-page bibliography, listing works from authors such as Lee Smolin, Edward Wilson, Gwyn Jones, Jared Diamond, Mark Kurlansky and Karen Armstrong (I could have easily listed 100 names here; these were just randomly selected).
While "Big History" is an objective presentation, Brown admits that a theme emerged as she was writing the book: "the impact of human activities on the planet, as well as the planet's impact on people."
That would seem a natural path.