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21. Epilogue

Many readers have probably noticed that this explanation of history contains relatively little actual historical data. There is a reason for that. The ideas contained here are not necessarily original, but they are put together in a new way, and they amount to a new theory of history. Most readers do not know where this explanation is going until they are close to the end. It is difficult to follow an explanation when you do not know where it is leading. If the readers had to wade through large amounts of historical data along the way, they could very easily lose track of the concepts that I am trying to explain.

For more than twenty years I tried to write a history book that contained these ideas plus all the data that is necessary to support them. I started with an overview of tribal society and continued with a discussion of the two main types of aristocrat peasant society. Then came a description of the gradual change to market distribution of food in late medieval Europe. This was followed by a description of the Protestant Reformation, revolution in the Netherlands, civil war and revolution in England, revolution in America, the French Revolution, etc. etc.

Eighteen years ago I completed a 360-page manuscript which got me a large collection of rejection slips. In the years since then I tried a number of times to do essentially the same thing only better. The entire effort was an excellent learning experience, but it never resulted in a publishable book. Two years ago I finally caught on that there was a basic flaw in this methodology and started thinking about taking a minimalist approach. In April 2001 I began again with the idea of writing just an explanation of history that would include the smallest possible amount of historical data. This document is the result.

I continue to believe that the essence of history is in the data. Those readers who want more data are my kind of people. The best place to find the data is in the hundreds of thousands of history books that have been written by specialists who have devoted their careers to learning and understanding a small section of history. That is where I have always gone for data, and that is where I recommend most people should go when searching for the actual events of history.

The dedicated specialists learn the relevant languages for their area of study. They become familiar with the original sources that are available. They compile the data, analyze it, and assemble it into books for the average reader. Large numbers of these books can be found in any good library.

There are, of course, problems that occur. Historians often tend to emphasize the positive aspects of their own society and downplay the negatives. When describing international conflicts they often emphasize the negatives of opposing countries and disregard the justifications for their actions. This is a serious flaw that history readers have to get used to and try to work around.

Another serious problem with the history profession is that all historians are specialists. In graduate school I was told that I must either choose a specialty or leave. It is not allowed to be a universalist and try to understand how all societies function. I fully agree that most historians must be specialists. They are the people who are qualified to go rummaging through the archives and root out the historical data. No one person can possibly learn all languages and read all original documents, but finding the data and explaining the data can be two different things.

Specialists are, by definition, limited to their area of specialization. For the most part they do not study history that is outside of their particular area. This explanation of history was formulated by comparing data from many different countries and looking for similarities and differences. Specialists cannot do that. When they are puzzled about an historical event they tend to delve deeper into the background of the participants. That is not wrong, but quite often it is not the best way to understand what is happening.

The transition from traditional society to modern society is something that has happened in many different countries over the last few hundred years. In order to understand each country’s revolutionary experience of course it is necessary to take a deep look at the personalities involved, but it is also necessary to compare the social, political, and economic data from each country with similar data from other countries. This comparison of the historical data from different countries is necessary in order to understand all the information that the data is capable of telling us.

The history profession needs universalists. It needs people who are willing to analyze and use relevant data no matter what specialty it comes from. The whole world is going through a massive revolutionary transition. This change is a little over half completed. It is possible to use data from the first half of this revolution to help understand events that are taking place right now as the revolutionary process spreads through the rest of the world.

It is of little or no value for a few scattered individuals to carry out this kind of research. It would not be possible for the world to judge the value of their findings. If the world is to gain useful insights from history that might help to solve today’s problems, thousands of historians will have to take part. If there were hundreds of universalists studying this problem, and thousands of specialists feeding them data, the results could be of monumental importance. They would quickly surpass the meager understanding that is contained in this inadequate explanation of history.

Millions of people are dying every year because their countries are immersed in the violence and confusion of revolutionary social change. Historians cannot solve this problem, but the first step in finding a solution is usually to understand the problem. Historians have the data that is necessary to understand and explain this problem. That data comes from many different areas of specialization. If historians would work together to find and analyze all of the relevant data, they could illuminate the problem in such a way that politicians and others could be much more successful in dealing with it.

In the interest of brevity, I have left out a great deal of material that should be part of this explanation of history. For those who want more information there is a bibliography section with a list of good history books. This website also has a bulletin board discussion forum. It can be used to read comments that have already been posted, to make new comments, or to ask questions. I will try to answer as many questions as possible.