Chronological periodization distorts the meaning of historical processes.

Evidence

History is always stranger than we imagine or can imagine. It’s never black/white, it’s never either/or, it’s never “if a, therefore b.” The chains of causation snap when you breathe on them. Some iron assumptions are cobweb-thin. History is never tidy or shapely. It doesn’t have a dramatic arc. — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 1173 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

If there is any unity in the movement of history, if there is any intimate relation between what goes before and what comes later, it is necessary, for setting this forth, that earlier and later periods should be synthesized in a single mind. — Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, 31 (#complicates, via linked claim)

In the evaluation of the dominant moods of any historical period it is important to hold fast to the fact that there are always islands of self-sufficient order-on farms and in castles, in homes, studies, and cloisters-where sensible people manage to live relatively lusty and decent lives: as moral as they can be, as free as they may be, as masterly as they can be. — Philip Chase Bobbitt, Reflections Inspired by My Critics, 860 (#qualifies, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Europe’s late medieval crisis had contested causes but clear contraction effects; Discerning order always persists within otherwise disordered historical periods — Philip Chase Bobbitt, Reflections Inspired by My Critics, 860; Historical synthesis by a single mind reveals deep connections across eras — Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, 31 (+13 more)

Related

• Discerning order always persists within otherwise disordered historical periods (similarity 0.84)
• Modern history shows grotesque disparities between causes and effects (similarity 0.83)
• Historical analysis can shift from figure and event to field and ground. (similarity 0.83)
• Real history lacks tidy dramatic arcs and tidy causation. (similarity 0.81)
• Historical synthesis by a single mind reveals deep connections across eras (similarity 0.81)

Broader Connections

• Real history lacks tidy dramatic arcs and tidy causation. #corroborates (0.70) — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 1173
• Discerning order always persists within otherwise disordered historical periods #qualifies (0.60) — Philip Chase Bobbitt, Reflections Inspired by My Critics, 860
• Historical synthesis by a single mind reveals deep connections across eras #complicates (0.60) — Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, 31