Hyper History

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Monday, February 18. 2008

Schools don't teach Hyper History, but they should�cover it before they teach any specific historical period. During most of my formal�history education, I�struggled to orient myself�in historical time.

Hyper History means what happened over the broad sweep of time, say 30,000 BC to 1900 -�those old-fashioned time lines, to help you put whatever you learn in some kind of context. Since it isn't taught, you have to make one yourself with big rolls of paper, which will make you learn it better, or, next best for the lazies, buy one from HyperHistory Online. and hang it on a long wall. It's not just for kids.

I also found a very cool Roman timeline.

Posted by Bird Dog in Education, Our Essays at 12:07 | Comments (43) | Trackbacks (0)

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You're exactly right, BD. Learning little clumps of history out of the context of time is confusing.

I had a wall 'map' that was about twenty feet long, and it had all the eras divided up by sections of the world and its societies. It was terrific to look at what was happening in England and China at the same time for instance. I could stand in front of that map for hours.

#1 Meta on 2008-02-18 12:25 (Reply)

Yup. that's it.

#1.1 BD on 2008-02-18 12:42 (Reply)

Meta,

I've seen those though never owned one. But I think they are sooooo kool. History to me is fascinating. Truly fascinating .

When I was a high schooler and young college kid I would often ask a new date who she would invite to a dinner party of 10-15 people, living or dead. It was always a semi fair indicator as to where that particular girls interests were.

#1.2 Habu on 2008-02-18 19:59 (Reply)

Okay, Habu..... This was hard and I had no women until I thought of the one - at the end.

Geoffrey Chaucer
Shakespeare
Jesus
Samuel Johnson
Thomas Jefferson
Voltaire
Charlemagne
Francis Bacon
John Locke
Archimedes
George Orwell
J. D. Salinger
John Stewart Mill
Hitler
Tacitus
Whoever built Stonehenge
Catherine the Great

#1.2.1 Meta on 2008-02-18 23:44 (Reply)

I'm seating Hitler next to Johnson. I doubt Adolf makes it through the salad.

#1.2.1.1 Meta on 2008-02-18 23:46 (Reply)

Meta,

Great list ! Confuscious, Buddha, and lately Mohammad?

I found, even to this day when asking anyone who their guests would be that Jesus is on the list 99+% of the time.

It wasn't easy was it? And I'm sure tomorrow there might be a person or two you'd prefer but initially simply over looked.

I've had several "lists" because of that. How does one leave out Leonardo da Vinci or Michelangelo? I've done it but then "revised" my list.

Hitler is another that shows up on 90+% lists as people want to plumb the depths of such depravity to see what makes a man such as he tick.

Aristotle and his pupil Alexander the Great. Ren� Descartes and Isaac Newton? Immanuel Kant and Mohammad?

Yep it's an interesting conversation starter.

#1.2.1.2 Habu on 2008-02-19 00:36 (Reply)

Confucius

#1.2.1.2.1 Habu on 2008-02-19 01:02 (Reply)

Habu,

I started out with the Greeks and promptly dismissed them because their legacy has been so perpetuated and embraced by all on any list. I thought of Buddha and Mohammed and dismissed Mohammed for being unable to add to the conversation. Buddha - okay but left him off because the 'truly' peaceful are no fun at parties. The warriors - My view on them is that they are the actors on the stage and it is the observers in the audience who see the 'whole'. That's why the literary characters whose visions were comprehensive, and of those I chose, unbiased. Descartes and Newton, Darwin - we know so much already. Kant - covered by Bacon and a total bore in himself. phew!

Notice I left off artists - musicians and painters. I concentrated on free thinkers, philosophers and those who might enjoy rearranging their thinking or at least appreciating the thinking of others. But for sure, each had a comprehensive view of his age. Archimedes........at the other end of the table. I'm sitting by Salinger!

#1.2.1.2.2 Meta on 2008-02-19 12:56 (Reply)

the party might be a delight
or it may turn into a fight

for egos like these
will not try to please

and each will be certain he's right

#1.2.1.2.2.1 buddy larsen on 2008-02-19 20:32 (Reply)

Meta,

I did say when I was a young man so I never every disqualified those dates who listed the likes of Marilyn Monroe, Errol Flynn, Catherine the Great(giddy -up), Seka, Timothy Leary, Maharishi Mashis Yogi, Ana�s Nin, and of course Caligula.

#1.2.1.3 Habu on 2008-02-19 01:12 (Reply)

The more dead folks invited means more food for the living.

Nevertheless, me wouldn't invite any dead folks.

#1.2.1.3.1 Leag on 2008-02-19 06:34 (Reply)

why not? they wouldn't come anyway -- they're dead.

#1.2.1.3.1.1 buddy larsen on 2008-02-19 09:20 (Reply)

Quite right, buddy.

Excercise in frustration describes Habu's dating parlays.

Me wants to know, what's for dinner.

#1.2.1.3.1.1.1 Leag on 2008-02-19 09:55 (Reply)

Leag,

It may be an exercise in frustration but first one needs to receive an invitation to the party before they can experience the frustration.

It was a helluva party you missed. Maybe next year you'll make the list of invitees.

Ain't life a kick when you start to dish the sh*t and the fan is blowing in your direction?

#1.2.1.3.1.1.1.1 Habu on 2008-02-19 12:58 (Reply)

Me ain't your type, though that may frustrate ya , also.

But then ya do have penchant for frustration.

Dead folks don't trip me, but if ya like dead, ya like it.

Enjoy.

#1.2.1.3.1.1.1.1.1 Leag on 2008-02-19 13:43 (Reply)

Caligula?

hahaha.... Stud were ya?

GATOR!! :)

#1.2.1.3.2 Meta on 2008-02-19 13:05 (Reply)

caligula -- don't name yer kid after THAT guy --

#1.2.1.3.2.1 buddy larsen on 2008-02-19 15:09 (Reply)

None better than this book!

http://tinyurl.com/ysr5jb

Affirming the West:

http://tinyurl.com/2wr6rt

#2 IrishCicero on 2008-02-18 14:06 (Reply)

Looks like a great book, even mentioning Fredric Bastiat who many think had he lived longer would have impacted the world of economic theory greatly. (plus I just bought his two volume set of essays which means I get to bask in the dim light of his glory)

#2.1 Habu on 2008-02-19 00:59 (Reply)

I couldn't agree more. I've always had a natural inclination to assign historical events to a mental timeline. I thought everyone did the same. It was only when I was in college that I realized some people didn't know the chronological difference between Hannibal, Charlemagne, and Henry V. And thanks to some recent heavy reading, my wife has become more interested in historical socio-politics. We've recently watched Luther, Becket, The Lion in Winter, Elizabeth (and the newly released sequel), and I'm trying to get her to watch the first season of Rome. Still, it's fun to sit around and talk about how this leader did this, which led to that, which led to....

#3 Granddaddy Long Legs (Link) on 2008-02-18 15:17 (Reply)

I partly agree. I certainly agree about teaching timelines and key points in sequence somewhere early on. I recommend Gombrich's A Little History of the World, actually.

But I don't think that the cups will stay up unless there are cuphooks to hang them on. You have to know something well enough to tie it in with other things. My younger brother was a poor student until he fell in love with Civil War history in 5th grade. He pursued that knowledge fanatically, but did not branch out into other things until well into highschool. My two older sons got a lot of biblical history and medieval history. They learned and forgot what was taught about most other eras until those two were quite solidly in place.

To take another analogy, to string beads into an observable pattern, you need beads as well as string.

#4 Assistant Village Idiot (Link) on 2008-02-18 22:31 (Reply)

I've had this on my wall for a year or two, and it still catches our eye and makes us pause to study it every once in a while. It's great. Also, look at http://www.kk.org/cooltools/archives/000453.php

#5 Some Guy on 2008-02-18 23:15 (Reply)

I had a giant twenty-pound book called "The Atlas of World History" which was a world Atlas which repeated the same maps through time, but in different graphic styles reminiscent of the subject era, and with important events and trend changes depicted with text and pen & ink sketches superimposed upon the pictorally-represented topographical geography. It was a book of oodles of political maps leading a reader thru time and space with art interesting enough to have stood alone without any data. Every great break point in history had its own big gorgeous plate surrounded by a few pages of that story in text indexed back to little numbers on the big plate. Great book, a treasure, some mid-20th century historian's labor of love. I hadn't recalled that book in a long time -- the last few years at least -- wish i knew where it was. Maybe the ex took it. Oh great now i'm in a shitty mood.

#6 buddy larsen on 2008-02-19 01:39 (Reply)

Buddy,

I have that book!! Is it great, or what? Sometimes I take it to bed and pick a section and just read away into the night. Genius, brilliant work!

I sind et to ya, honey. Jes male et ta TEXIS: BUDDY.

#6.1 Meta on 2008-02-19 13:19 (Reply)

So YOu got my missing book. that's okay--as long as it dint go ta waste. Mebbe you could send me the author & publisher -- well not the actual author & publisher, then i'd have to entertain -- but just they names n such ?

Thanking you in advance, i remain, your faithful servant, etcetera,

#6.1.1 buddy larsen on 2008-02-19 14:57 (Reply)

brainstorming no edits--Abe Lincoln, George Washington, Ben Franklin, Stonewall Jackson, any veteran of Pickett's Charge, Sitting Bull, Van Gogh speaking English, Shakespeare, Churchill, Mary Queen of Scots, Cleopatra speaking English, Abraham w/ English (oh everybody has to have English), Jesus, Alexander, Caesar, Hitler and that Knight Templar before the French king incinerated him. that's neighborhood of 15 i think. mercy -- what a dinner party --

#7 buddy larsen on 2008-02-19 02:00 (Reply)

That'd be Jacques de Molay and Geoffroy de Charney. He got both of them.

#8 bob on 2008-02-19 04:08 (Reply)

Black Elk, Bugsy Siegel, Plato, grandfather, the bard, Joseph Campbell, Moses, Jesus, Gotama, Nick the Bartender, Cleopatra, Gregory of Nyssa, Walt Whitman, Mark Twain and Theodore Roethke. And Churchill.

#9 bob on 2008-02-19 04:19 (Reply)

De Molay is the one -- like to ask him about the you know what, did they really find it underneath the first temple and all. And is it still around somewhere?

Re Sitting Bull and Black Elk, we probably missed a great interview in Chief Joseph, whose surrender speech is one of the most heartbreaking and eloquent short forms ever.

#9.1 buddy larsen on 2008-02-19 09:15 (Reply)

Jesus, Shakespeare, Aristotle, Alcibiades, Caesar, Boethius, Charlemagne, Luther, Lincoln, Einstein, Ratzinger

#10 Peter Boston on 2008-02-19 04:19 (Reply)

I'm going out on a limb , and being a real kiss ass.Here it goes Habu, Buddy, Bird dog, Barrister, Meta, Legg,Apple Pie, Retreiver, Ass Village Idiot Dr Mercury, Ajacksonian, Luther Mcleod, Bob, Tom C. Topic of coversation : HOw do we take our country back!!

#11 jappy on 2008-02-19 08:58 (Reply)

I'm not sure where ass village is located, but damn i'd hate to be the local public health director

#11.1 buddy larsen on 2008-02-19 09:06 (Reply)

Buddy,Ass village is where all proctologist hang out.They are going to plan there next cocktail party, where they will be conversing about assteroids!!

#11.1.1 jappy on 2008-02-19 09:59 (Reply)

ah yes, the proctologist -- a position of great rectitude.

There's one around here whose office is so busy he has a sign out front saying "To Save Time, Please Walk In Backwards".

#11.1.1.1 buddy larsen on 2008-02-19 10:13 (Reply)

HEY JAPPY--GUESS WHICH PLANET THEM ASSTEROIDS COME FRUM -- HAHAHA

#11.1.1.2 buddy larsen on 2008-02-19 15:01 (Reply)

I know Buddy, I know I'm suffering with the sobees now.No greater pain in the ass.

#11.1.1.2.1 jappy on 2008-02-19 17:36 (Reply)

Ha - that's a good one jappy... that would be a hell of a dinner party. Great topic.

#11.2 Luther McLeod (Link) on 2008-02-19 09:43 (Reply)

a group that size needs an experienced squad leader, LM -- i guess that's gonna have to be you. hey, can i have the BAR ? hell i better get on that damn exer bike sitting over there spokes grinnin at me thinking 'ha i knew you wouldn't ride me'.

#11.2.1 buddy larsen on 2008-02-19 10:57 (Reply)

I just want to know who's keeping the notes. That will be a hectic job ;)

Only got to fire the BAR a couple of times... but damn fine weapon. As far as exercise... yep, seen too many of those machines gathering dust. So, instead, I started this about a month ago... great exercise and fun as well.

http://www.kajukenbo.org/history/

#11.2.1.1 Luther McLeod (Link) on 2008-02-19 12:05 (Reply)

Cool, LM -- that you would leap off into such a discipline at the age of 39 --heh. That founder sitting there with fingers the size of bananas clenched up in fists looks like a pretty tough hombre.

#11.2.1.1.1 buddy larsen on 2008-02-19 15:06 (Reply)

Ha - my name's not Jack, Buddy... though thanks anyway. I will say my silver mane, such as it is, does stick out a little compared to the youngsters.

Genghis Khan... Nikola Tesla... William T. Sherman

#11.2.1.1.1.1 Luther McLeod (Link) on 2008-02-19 18:08 (Reply)

napoleon, edison, and jesse james

#12 buddy larsen on 2008-02-19 15:50 (Reply)

Hey Habu, is Seka there for the conversation? One of my favorites that I haven't seen listed above is CS Lewis. A truly good and wise man.

#13 sean on 2008-02-19 17:22 (Reply)

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Monday, February 18. 2008

Hyper History