r/history • u/floatable_shark • 21d ago
Any good strategies for learning a comprehensive view of global history?
I was just reading about the history of Kabul and was reminded of my ignorance of history. I had no idea about the Median Empire, Seleucid Empire, Mauryan Empire, the Greco-Bactrians, the Kushans, the 5 tribes of Yuezhi... and that's just in one region and a fairly small slice of history! What are some things that have worked for you? I know there probably isn't an exhaustive book on it, that would be impossible, so how do you even do it? Any way to get a sort of comprehensive view, or is it only ever piecemeal, incomplete, and over a lifetime?
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u/sitquiet-donothing 21d ago
Get some maps or a good atlas with historical regions labeled! There is nothing more annoying than trying to remember where Baluchistan is and where all of the various historical regions of Siberia, Russia, and Central Asia. Suzdalia doesn't sound like it should be where it is! Anyway, this geographic help has aided me immensely in understanding the story.
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u/boccraeft 20d ago
Maps play a large role in helping shape the narratives and structures of meaning people have for the past, and they have done for hundreds of years - the mappae-mundi tradition of medieval map-making, for example, principally focused on presenting themselves as histories. But it's crucial to understand their limitations - maps don't show borders and entities, they create them. Many of the concepts we have regarding cultural groups, identity, borders, sovereignty, frontiers, space, and time, can be far removed from how they were understood in the past, and often times modern maps trying to depict the ancient world or the middle ages are quite anachronistic. Wargaming communities (for example those of the Paradox strategy games) are a prime example of how this anachronistic use of maps can be misleading or even dangerous as even though these are video games, they can subconsciously still effect those structures of meaning that people will develop for the past. This is very much the same for modern maps and atlases - there's an assumed idea that modern maps are rooted in some sort of objective accuracy but that is definitely not the case - chances are many of the borders you have seen in maps showing ancient empires and so on are based entirely on guesswork or third-hand information approximated from an interpretation of some primary source - and even then, the assumption of there being neat borders as on a modern map would be erroneous. (Sorry for the lil' rant - I love and hate maps in equal measure for this reason! They're a novel and exciting way to look into the past and to see the world, but can be extremely misleading.)
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u/UrTheReasonBidenWon 20d ago edited 20d ago
The things that have worked best for me have been taking a college level world history class and playing the historical total war games (seriously). I learned all about seleucids and greko-bactrians by simulating them in a living breathing world. Did you know that around the same time, Celtic tribes controlled land all the way from Ireland to Turkey? And people from around that time described red head mercenaries in Egypt who were probably Celts.
There is a game set around the Roman republic, another one set around the fall of the western Roman Empire, there is a game set in the three kingodms period in China and another one that goes from the rise to the fall of samurai in japan. There is one based on the Napoleon of wars, there is one set during the American revolution, there is one set in medieval Europe. I’m probably forgetting some too.
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u/scootmcdoo 19d ago
Urthereason, I couldn't agree more. Those games helped me tremendously to understand history. The Alemmeni of Germany, how war dogs were used, etc. For architecture and specific city layout, assassins creeds. Honestly though to truly understand human history language is a beacon. Go to Wikipedia and change a page to a different language, then convert the page w/ back. You will find that different cultures have different information. Also sentence structure and applying male or female reveals a bit. Find a mystery n delve into it. I had a mild obsession w/ the first Crusade and found out so many things that way. Like did you know the Vandals basically abducted the last royal family of the western Roman Empire then kinda disappeared after having a huge impact on the world? Names and places are revealing. Find out what Native Americans called the area you live in. Then find out why......
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u/Bedotnobot 21d ago
What vaival said. And depending on your on resources of time and finances ( sadly), Colleges have often open courses for people. Meaning you can join the course, but without writing exams or getting a degree. Well subject to your local regulations of course. But it is a way to find the scholars in the field of your interest which also can help you researching papers that are put online, another source are museum staff. If you find a place that had exhibitions on those topics they might give you information where to look or to who can be contacted. Good luck in your pursuit!
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u/atomicmarc 20d ago
You're lucky. I learned history by attending university and sitting in libraries. Today you can use your phone to find any information anywhere. :) My suggestion would be to find an e-Book seller (Amazon, Goodreads, etc) and start reading every day. Pic an era and go wild. If it's not that interesting, pick another era. I cut my teeth on Will Durant's work in the 70s before I branched off into more obscure, deeper areas. I finally got a degree in Modern American History, but I detoured into Roman, Celtic, and Chinese history along the way. I'm still on my journey.
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u/Boorito-15 16d ago
I would highly recommend reading Connected History: Essays and Arguments by Sanjay Subrahmanyam.
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u/dallenhistory 20d ago
Picking a good book that covers multiple regions and time periods would be a good place to start, that may help you focus in on topic that interest you! One of my favourites is Peter Frankopan's 'The Silk Roads'.
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u/Strict_Parsley2301 18d ago
Watching histomaps actually helped me a lot. This video by Ollie Bye: https://youtu.be/-6Wu0Q7x5D0 Can help you get familiar with many empires in history
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u/Beardless_Kropotkin 17d ago
Among other things, I would recommend reading The Transformation of the World: A Global History of the Nineteenth Century by J. Osterhammel.
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u/velvetvortex 17d ago
The Larousse Encyclopedia Modern History and the Larousse Encyclopedia of Ancient and Medieval History give a very wide ranging brief overview of world history. I used to own them and recommend them.
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u/vaivai22 21d ago
You start by building an interest. History is a huge topic, and it’s impossible to learn it all. But if you find something of interest, say the Seleucid Empire, and you start reading up on that you can start to see the many connections that form throughout history. You see how it came to be, what was there before, how it fell and what came after.
This is a good way to slowly build your base of historical understanding over time. You can also make an effort to learn about places you know you really don’t know a lot about - seek out some documentaries on the subject which are usually good for a quick overview.
What’s most important is finding a variety of sources.