I saw an interesting post by Ardis Parshall at Keepapitchinin,  A “Big-N” Narrative of Church History   One of the goals I have been working toward is constructing a similar narrative of world history. It’s one of those projects that is way too big for me, but keeps me off the streets and out of the opium dens and  cathouses.

Most recently, I’ve been taking current events and trying to investigate the historical background. There is about a two-year gap in my history when I wasn’t keeping track of current events on a week-by-week basis,  although the Wikipedia summaries fill in something on a month-by-month basis.  I’m giving more attention to cities and to the application of social mechanics to history, examining social changes and structure. The chief emphasis is on the industrial revolution and subsequent developments. I don’t quite have this categorized into finer levels of development, but I’m working on it.  Although most history (and current events) deal with government and politics, I am putting more of an emphasis on religion.  Abrahamic religion (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam), Asian religion, and pagan religion are the traditional ones, but in more recent times, secularism has become predominant among the leadership of society. Although secularism  has many religious characteristics and is quasi-religious in character, many of its adherents deny that it is a religion. The connection to politics and government, economic and educational institutions can be found. I want to put more emphasis on families. The customs, beliefs, and materials of society can also be connected.

In composing the narrative, I intend to be guided by events and personalities that have had the greatest and most lasting  impact. These may or may not be those that appear most prominently in news accounts of the day.