This is a teachable moment for the United States and the world.  We have an educational opportunity of global proportions brought on by the international economic crises, the dangers of runaway environmental problems, the number of violent conflicts in the world fought with weapons of increasing destructiveness, the exponential growth in wealth and knowledge experienced in the last decades, the challenges of new sciences and technologies, and the spread of new ideas and values in a world of conflicted cultures and ideologies.  Our Common Story provides the appropriate context to understand and address all of these changes and challenges.

If one were to read a single book on the subject today, it would certainly be David Christian’s Maps of Time: An Introduction to Big History, (University of California Press, 2004). Maps of Time provides this overview in six parts, fifteen chapters, eight different timelines, nine maps, thirty-nine charts, two appendices, over six hundred references, all bound in one big book.  The story of the universe and the evolution of life are covered in the first hundred and forty pages.  The remaining four hundred some pages detail the evolution of humans, the rise of agriculture and agrarian civilizations, and the great acceleration of the modern era. David Christian is a skilled historian and storyteller. He provides not only the macrohistory, but explains the evidence for why we know it to be so and when the evidence might be inconclusive.  He is generous in crediting others.  The book is now also available from the Teaching Company as a series of audio or video lectures. There are a number of other single authored books that also do a fine job of putting “it” altogether with less words, different emphases, and divergent interpretations.

I cannot imagine using just a single book in a semester-long course, coming as I do from a humanities background.  I am also interested in not just presenting the facts, but encouraging students and adults alike to be existentially involved in and critically reflective about different interpretations of the factual narrative and especially our present moment.  Engaging storytelling also does not necessarily follow a linear, chronological progression.  So the curriculum I am proposing begins with human history and moves backwards into evolution and cosmology.  In the middle, it considers a number of contemporary problems – war, economics, and the environment – as well as the postmodern philosophical challenge of adjudicating between all of our different stories – religions, ethnicities, nationalities, ideologies, socioeconomic classes, and gender.  The curriculum then ends with a brief consideration of the future of science and technology.  Our Common Story: Our Common Future is thus Big History “backwards and forwards.” In the process, the aim is to seduce students and citizens to love history and science and to be critically and existentially engaged in contemporary global debates.

There are seven books in the proposed curriculum.  In order proposed above, they are:

1. Robert McNeill and William H. McNeill, The Human Web: A Bird's-Eye View of World History, 2003.
2. Gwynne Dyer, War: The Lethal Custom, 2004.
3. Eric Beinhocker, The Origin of Wealth: Evolution, Complexity, and the Radical Remaking of Economics, Cambridge, 2006.
4. Christian Smith, Moral, Believing Animals: Human Personhood and Culture, 2003.
5. Bill Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything, 2003, 2005.
6. Joel R. Primack and Nancy Ellen Abrams, The View from the Center of the Universe: Discovering Our Extraordinary Place in the Cosmos, 2006.
7. Ray Kurzweil. The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology, 2005.

The goal is not to promote these books in particular, and certainly not to advocate some simple metanarrative that frames simple answers about the meaning and purpose of life or simple solutions to the great problems in our world today. 

The curriculum can be sliced, diced, and supplemented in a variety of ways, both in terms of content and pedagogy for different ages and situations.  Jennifer Morgan and Dana Lynne Andersen, for instance, have created series of beautifully illustrated children’s books appropriate for elementary school children: Born from a Bang, From Lava to Life , and Mammals Who Morph. There are even cartoon versions for those inclined to read comic books.

Our Common Story has even been presented in 200 words, as a 60 second comedy routine with slides by scientist Eric Schulman, and his longer, geekier, but no less witty A Briefer History of Time. Schulman’s 200-word version has been translated into thirty languages.  David Christian’s some 300,000 word version of this Big History has not been translated into any other languages.  If this really is a common story, however, then it and other texts will ultimately need to be written or translated into Chinese and Arabic, Urdu and Russian, Bahasa and Spanish.

While Our Common Story has a strong factual foundation based in increasingly indisputable science, the historical narrative itself is open to multiple interpretations. Navigating debates about Our Common Future is even more contentious.  Having a common story does not make our different stories magically disappear, but it does provide a common frame of reference in which we can dialogue and debate, creatively problem solve and pragmatically cooperate in crafting a kinder, healthier, safer, and smarter world for future generations.

The purpose of the new core course is to promote basic twenty-first century literacies and not particular ideologies or policies.  The curriculum should be supplemented by other expertise and perspectives.  The content should be accessible in multiple modalities, including television and film, lectures, symposia, multimedia, study guides, special events, Internet sites, and more.  Our Common Story requires broad transdisciplinary expertise and multiple pedagogies.

In terms of content, my vote is for seven learned competencies that might well be expected of all undergraduates, their professors in all disciplines, professionals of all kinds, clergy of all faiths, journalists of all perspectives, and engaged citizens of all persuasions.  Without some familiarity of this new “Big Picture,” we will not really understand the changes in the world around us, nor be able to effectively craft a better future.  These seven core competencies are

1. the evolutionary history of the universe and our planet;
2. the macro-history of humanity over the last 200,000 years;
3. the evolution of warfare and its constraints on our future;
4. the history of economic development;
5. the history of human impact on the environment;
6. new capacities for civil disagreement, dialogue, and problem-solving;
7. the ability to think critically and engage constructively in interpretation. 

Obviously there are all kinds of other competencies to teach and learn, but these six broadly address basic literacy in science, history, and the “civil” part of civilization.  Some knowledge in each of these areas might be expected of any “educated” persons in the twenty-first century.

Whether it is one book or many, the vision is that all students everywhere – of all ages, disciplines, professions, nationalities, and religions – would digest, discuss, debate, and delight in contemplating Our Common Story and Our Common Future.  Think of it as first “global teach-in.”

Note that most of these ideas and insights are quite new to human civilization.  None of the books above could have been written even fifty years ago, although all of them embody millennia of human cultural achievements.  For the first time in human history, it is now possible to tell a unified and increasingly factual story of humanity, the planet, and our universe.  Every time we pick up a cellphone or pump 200 million-year-old fossil fuel into our cars, we affirm this story in deed if not in thought and understanding.  Integrating this new evolving, scientific story is key to our common future at a dangerous moment in the cultural evolution of our species and the natural history of our planet.  How can we solve epic problems in the world today, if we do not understand the epic of evolution in which we have come to thrive and may yet fail?   Reframing human history in the context of the evolution of life and the universe, including the cognitive, cultural and technological evolution of humans, will help to re-orient humanity away from bitter ideological and ethnic conflicts of the past towards pragmatic problem-solving in the future.

Our Common Story is a special opportunity to redefine the contours of debate and the fundamental questions asked at home and abroad, as we seek to develop practical solutions with sufficient political support and effective implementation.  To implement this vision will require a lot of support from individuals, foundations, corporations, governments, universities, religious institutions, scientists, humanists, artists, celebrities, and others.  Whether it is one book or many, think of it as the world’s largest book club or Google Earth History 101.

This new story includes important new insights about human cultural, technological, and economic evolution.  It includes important new insights about war and violence, including the technological, psychological, economic, and biological evolution of conflict in human history and how we may yet evolve into more peaceful societies. It includes new insights about the storied nature of our religions and ideologies, including critical questions about who gets to interpret this new epic of evolution and how.  It includes new insights into how complex, distributed economic systems function, dysfunction, and produce both incredible wealth and new forms of incredible poverty.  It includes insights into how natural systems also function as complex, distributed systems, and the dangers of runaway environmental problems.  It includes insights about the deep time of the Earth and the Cosmos and the unique moment in space and time in which we humans find ourselves.  It includes practical knowledge about the great problem of the twenty-first century and fundamental principles that inform how these challenges might be successfully addressed.  Our Common Story is key to Our Common Future. 

Our Common Story need not be antithetical to great religious traditions since these traditions have been central to this story.  Indeed, the propagation of this new history of nature and humanity can help stimulate a great revival in religious learning and service, faith and practice.  It is vital and appropriate that this new story be told in a way that affirms religious traditions and cultural differences, remembering that the interpretation of this story is essentially a religious activity.  All of this can help to take the edge off bitter ideological, nationalist, and religious conflicts around the world.

The absorption of this new understanding of the universe, our planet, and the evolution of humanity stands on the path to addressing many of the great challenges of the twenty-first century.  The propagation of this new story would be a great boon for United States and the world.  It would help stimulate educational achievement in our societies and others.  The propagation of this new story would also help create a more civil and educated political culture here in the United States and abroad.  A teachable moment is a terrible moment to waste when we all have so many new ideas to learn and critical problems to address together.