Universal history is basic to the Western tradition of
historiography, especially the Judeo-Christian wellspring of that tradition. Simply stated, universal history is the presentation of the history of mankind as a whole, as a coherent unit.
Ancient examples
Ancient authors
In Greco-Roman antiquity, the first universal history was written by
Ephorus. This work has been lost, but its influence can be seen in the ambitions of
Polybius and
Diodorus to give comprehensive accounts of their worlds. Later, universal history provided an influential lens on the rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire in such works as
Eusebius'
Ecclesiastical History,
Augustine's
City of God, and
Orosius'
History Against the Pagans.
The Bible as universal history
The first five books of the Bible constitute a primary example of such a history. To the extent that the
Pentateuch presents itself as an account of mankind as a whole, from creation to the death of Moses, it is universal history. The story progresses according to a universal principle: the Bible posits that the history of mankind is governed by
Yawveh, and that his will is manifest in every event that takes place. The destiny of all mankind, according to this idea, is governed by man's relationship with God. This idea naturally flows into the story of the
Children of Israel, whose patriarchs conversed with God and made various covenants with Him. These covenants governed mankind's destiny. This idea extends into the
New Testament, which posits that the sacrifice of Jesus now affects every person, and every generation since his resurrection, into the limitless future.
Universal histories and chronicles in the Middle Ages
Western Europe
The
universal chronicle (or world chronicle), tracing history from the beginning of the world up to the present, was an especially popular genre of
historiography in
medieval Western Europe. The universal chronicle differs from the ordinary chronicle in its much broader chronological and geographical scope, giving, in principle, a continuous account of the progress of world history from the creation of the world up to the author's own times, but in practice often narrowing down to a more limited geographical range as it approaches those times.
The
Chronica of
Eusebius of Caesarea (c.
275–
339) is considered to be the starting point of this tradition. The second book of this work consisted of a set of concordance tables (
Chronici canones) that for the first time synchronized the several concurrent chronologies in use with different peoples. Eusebius' chronicle became known to the
Latin West through the translation by
Jerome (c.
347–
420).
Universal chronicles are sometimes organized around a central
ideological theme, such as the
Augustinian idea of the tension between the heavenly and the earthly state, which plays a major role in
Otto von Freising's
Historia de duabus civitatibus. In other cases, any obvious theme may be lacking. Some universal chronicles bear a more or less
encyclopedic character, with many digressions on non-historical subjects, as is the case with the
Chronicon of
Helinand of Froidmont.
Other notable universal chroniclers of the Medieval West include
Bede (c. 672 or 673–735), the
Christherre-Chronik,
Helinand of Froidmont (c. 1160—1237?),
Isidore of Seville (c. 560–636),
Jans der Enikel,
Matthew Paris (c. 1200-1259),
Ranulf Higdon (c. 1280-1363),
Rudolf von Ems,
Sigebert of Gembloux (c. 1030–1112),
Otto von Freising (c. 1114–1158), and
Vincent of Beauvais (c. 1190-1264?).
Christian writers as late as
Bossuet (in his
Discours sur l'histoire universelle,1679) were still reflecting on and continuing the Medieval tradition of universal history.
In Arabic
In the
medieval Arabic world, universal history in this vein was taken up by
Muslim historians such as
al-Tabari and
Ibn Khaldun. The 13th Century Jami al-Tawarikh ("Compendium of Chronicles") by
Rashid al-Din (now held at the
University of Edinburgh) is a significant example of this.
Modern examples
An early European project was the
Universal History of
George Sale and others, written in the mid-eighteenth century. In the nineteenth century, universal histories proliferated. Philosophers such as
Kant,
Schiller and
Hegel, and political philosophers such as
Marx, presented general theories of history that shared essential characteristics with the Biblical account: they conceived of history as a coherent whole, governed by certain basic characteristics or immutable principles. For example, Hegel presented the idea that progress in history is actually the progress not of mankind's material existence, but of humanity's spiritual development. Concomitantly, Hegel presented a developmental theory of how the human spirit progresses: through the
dialectic of synthesis and antithesis.
Marx's theory of dialectic materialism is essential to his general concept of history: that the struggle to dominate the means of production governs all historical development.
Popular conceptions and universal history
Basic ideas of universal history are so prevalent that they are difficult to separate from basic Western assumptions of how the world is or should be. Outside some
intellectuals, such ideas continue to predominate as core assumptions. The
teleological aspects of universal history remain entrenched. Many people believe that the events of our world, and more specifically, the events within the human community, are directed toward an end or tending toward an end of some sort. 'Linear' pre-suppositions of the theory are no less prevalent. Most people living in Western cultures conceive of time, and therefore of history, as a line or an arrow, that is proceeding from past to future, toward some end. The idea that time may be cyclical, or that there is no fundamental "end" to the human struggle, is unfamiliar.
Historiography
The roots of
historiography in the nineteenth century are bound up with the concept that history written with a strong connection to the primary sources could, somehow, be integrated with "the big picture", i.e. to a general, universal history. For example,
Leopold Von Ranke, probably the pre-eminent historian of the nineteenth century, founder of "Rankean positivism," the classic mode of historiography that now stands against
postmodernism, attempted to write a Universal History at the close of his career. The work of
Oswald Spengler and
Arnold J. Toynbee are two examples of attempts to integrate primary source -based history and Universal History. Spengler's work is more general; Toynbee created a theory that would allow the study of "civilizations" to proceed with integration of source-based history writing and Universal History writing. Both writers attempted to incorporate teleological theories into general presentations of the history.
See also
External articles and further reading
- Guha, Ranajit, "History at the Limit of World-History" (Italian Academy Lectures), Columbia University Press 2002
- Sale, George, Archibald Bower, and George Psalmanazar, "An Universal History, from the Earliest Account of Time". Millar, 1747.
- Wilson, Horace Hayman, "A manual of universal history and chronology". 1835.
- Jones, Lynds Eugene, George Palmer Putnam, and Simeon Strunsky, "Tabular Views of Universal History". G. P. Putnam's sons, 1907. 313 pages.
- Fisher, George Park, "Outlines of Universal History". Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor, and company, 1885. 674 pages.
- Georg Weber, "Outlines of Universal History: From the Creation of the World to the Present Time". Hickling, Swan and Brewer, 1859. 559 pages. (ed. Translated by M. Behr)
- Ollier, Edmund, "Cassell's illustrated universal history" Cassell, Petter, Galpin & Co., 1885.
- Clare, Israel Smith, "Library of Universal History". R. S. Peale, J. A. Hill, 1897.
- U.S. Patent 1,406,173 , Chart for Teaching Universal History, Nov 1, 1920
- Hegel, GWF. Philosophy of Right. TM Knox, tr. Oxford UP: New York, 1967. para. 341-360 (pp. 216-223). As a point of clarification, Hegel writes of World History, although this is somewhat identical to Universal History.
- Mink, Louis O. “Narrative Form as a Cognitive Instrument.” In Historical Understanding. Brian Fay, et al, eds. Cornell UP: Ithaca, 1987. pp. 182-203.
- Kant, Immanuel. “Idea for a Universal History from a Cosmopolitan Point of View.” In Philosophical Writings. Ernest Behler, ed. Lewis W Beck, tr. Continuum: New York, 1986. pp. 249-262.
- White, Hayden. Metahistory: The Historical Imagination in Nineteenth-Century Europe. Johns Hopkins UP, 1975.
Historiography studies the processes by which historical knowledge is obtained and transmitted. Broadly speaking, historiography examines the writing of history and the use of historical methods, drawing upon such elements such as authorship, sourcing, interpretation, style, bias,
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Ephorus (Ancient Greek: Ἔφορος, c. 400-330 BC), of Cyme in Aeolia, in Asia Minor, was a Greek historian.
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Polybius (ca. 203–120 BC, Greek Πολύβιος) was a Greek historian of the Mediterranean world famous for his book called The Histories or The Rise of the Roman Empire,
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Diodorus Siculus (Greek Διόδωρος Σικελιώτης), ca. 90 BC– ca.
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Eusebius of Caesarea (c. 275 – May 30, 339) (often called Eusebius Pamphili, "Eusebius [the friend] of Pamphilus") was a bishop of Caesarea in Palaestina and is often referred to as the father of Church history because of his work in recording the history of the
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Aurelius Augustinus, Augustine of Hippo, or Saint Augustine (November 13, 354 – August 28, 430) was a philosopher and theologian, and was bishop of the North African city of Hippo Regius for the last third of his life.
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The City of God (Latin: De Civitate Dei, also known as De Civitate Dei contra Paganos: The City of God against the Pagans) is a book written in Latin by Augustine of Hippo in the early 5th century, dealing with issues concerning God,
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Paulus Orosius (c. 385–420) was a Christian historian, theologian and disciple of St. Augustine who came from Gallaecia (a sub-province of Hispania Tarraconensis, comprising modern Galicia, in Spain, and northern Portugal), probably from the capital city Bracara Augusta
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Tanakh
Torah | Nevi'im | Ketuvim
Books of the Torah
1. Genesis
2. Exodus
3. Leviticus
4. Numbers
5.
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Yahweh is a proposed English reading of יהוה, the name of the God of Israel, as preserved in the original consonantal Hebrew Bible text. These four Hebrew letters [ i.e.
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The Children of Israel, or B'nei Yisrael (בני ישראל) in Hebrew (also B'nai Yisrael, B'nei Yisroel or Bene Israel) is a Biblical term for the Israelites.
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New Testament (Greek: Καινή Διαθήκη, Kainē Diathēkē) is the name given to the final portion of the Christian Bible, written after the Old Testament.
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Generally a chronicle (Latin chronica, from Greek χρονικά (from χρόνος
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Historiography studies the processes by which historical knowledge is obtained and transmitted. Broadly speaking, historiography examines the writing of history and the use of historical methods, drawing upon such elements such as authorship, sourcing, interpretation, style, bias,
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Middle Ages form the middle period in a traditional schematic division of European history into three "ages": the classical civilization of Antiquity, the Middle Ages and Modern Times.
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Western Europe is mainly a socio-political concept forged during the Cold War, which largely defined its borders. Its boundaries were effectively forged during the final stages of World War II and came to encompass all European countries which did not come under Soviet control and
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The Chronicon or Chronicle of Eusebius (Greek, Pantodape historia, "Universal History") is divided into two parts. The first part (Greek, Chronographia, "Annals") gives a summary of universal history from the sources, arranged according to nations.
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Eusebius of Caesarea (c. 275 – May 30, 339) (often called Eusebius Pamphili, "Eusebius [the friend] of Pamphilus") was a bishop of Caesarea in Palaestina and is often referred to as the father of Church history because of his work in recording the history of the
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3rd century - 4th century
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4th century · 5th century
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Latin}}}
Official status
Official language of: Vatican City
Used for official purposes, but not spoken in everyday speech
Regulated by: Opus Fundatum Latinitas
Roman Catholic Church
Language codes
ISO 639-1: la
ISO 639-2: lat
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Jerome (ca. 347 – September 30, 420; Greek: Ευσέβιος Σωφρόνιος Ιερώνυμος
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4th century · 5th century
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<noinclude>
This article is about the year 420. For other uses, see 420 (disambiguation).
4th century ·
5th century · 6th century
390s 400s 410s
420s..... Click the link for more information. An
ideology is an organized collection of ideas. The word
ideology was coined by Count Antoine Destutt de Tracy in the late 18th century to define a "science of ideas.
..... Click the link for more information. Aurelius Augustinus, Augustine of Hippo, or Saint Augustine (November 13, 354 – August 28, 430) was a philosopher and theologian, and was bishop of the North African city of Hippo Regius for the last third of his life.
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Otto von Freising (Otto Frisingensis) (c. 1114 in Klosterneuburg – 1158) was a German bishop and chronicler.
Life
He was the fifth son of Leopold III, margrave of Austria, by his wife Agnes, daughter of the emperor Henry IV.
..... Click the link for more information. encyclopedia, or (traditionally) encyclopædia, is a written compendium that contains information on all branches of knowledge or a particular branch of knowledge.
General
Etymology, spelling
The word encyclopedia
..... Click the link for more information. Helinand of Froidmont[1] (ca. 1160—after 1229 (probably 1237[2])) was a medieval poet, chronicler, and ecclesiastical writer.
Life
He was born of Flemish parents at Pronleroy in Oise in France c.
..... Click the link for more information. Bede (IPA: /ˈbiːd/) (also Saint Bede, the Venerable Bede, or (from Latin) Beda (IPA: [/beda/])), (c.
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