Our historical journey begins with the formation of the universe, which, according cosmic history, took place 13.7 billion years ago, with the Big Bang. This event, the catalyst of all things existing, has been documented in such humorous terms as Douglas Adams, in his novel The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: "The story so far: In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move."
This quote is rather funny to me, seeing as human beings, overall a self-centered and nearly insufferable race, have only been on the planet for 2.7 million years, give or take a few thousand. As a whole, the human race is something of a weak species, our needs in the past two hundred years sucking up more than half of the planet, without remorse or any solid way to ensure a safe future; however, I digress.
What I like about Strayer's text is that he understands this fact, our insignificance, and makes a point of criticizing some of our views concerning our importance to the universe, at the same time noting that the human race is unique in its self-awareness. No other species on Earth has gained the same self-awareness, to our knowledge, nor have they attempted to make gains on the rest of the universe, as we have.
Studying world history, as the text asks, requires "three Cs": change, comparison, and connection. That is, we document the changes in world eras, taking note of their importance. We make comparisons, between individual and cultural experiences, asking how the rise and fall of empire after empire was similar. Finally, we connect. What relevance does the history of the world have on today? In the negative sense, we've heard the saying: "those who forget history are doomed to repeat it." In the positive sense, we learn from the mistakes our ancestors made, and their ancestors, and are able to create a world that they'd never be able to dream of.
If that's not the most beautiful thing about world history, I don't know what is.
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