History — Library Index

A reference library for history, covering the major periods, regions, and methods of the discipline.

The library is organized so that each Tier 1 note is a self-contained survey of a period or methodological subdomain.

Later additions drill into Tier 2 depth notes for specific eras, regions, and movements, and Tier 3 catalogs of dynasties, conflicts, and primary sources.

Scope

History is treated here as the systematic study of past human societies through written, material, oral, and digital evidence.

The library aims for global breadth across Afro-Eurasia and the Americas, with periodization from agricultural origins (c. 10,000 BCE) through 2026.

Emphasis is placed on connecting political, economic, social, intellectual, and environmental history rather than narrowing to political-military chronology alone.

Tier 1 — Subdomain surveys (done)

1. ancient-history — agricultural origins, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Indus, China, Persia, Greece, Rome, India, Mesoamerica, Andes, Africa, c. 10,000 BCE - 500 CE
2. medieval-history — late antiquity, Byzantium, rise of Islam, Carolingian Europe, Crusades, Mongols, Song-Yuan-Ming China, Heian-Kamakura Japan, Mali, Aztec-Inca, c. 500 - 1500 CE
3. early-modern-history — Renaissance, Age of Exploration, Reformation, Scientific Revolution, Mughal, Ottoman, Qing, Tokugawa, Enlightenment, Atlantic Revolutions, c. 1450 - 1815
4. modern-history — Industrial Revolution, 19th-century nationalism, imperialism, World Wars, Cold War, decolonization, post-1991 world, c. 1815 - 2026
5. historiography-and-methods — sources, source criticism, schools of thought, cliometrics, digital humanities, periodization debates, objectivity

Tier 2 — In progress

• world-war-ii-deep — global synthesis, Holocaust, Pacific war, home fronts, atomic age origins

Tier 3 — Catalogs online

• Tier 3 index
• dynasties-and-monarchies-catalog — Egypt 31 dynasties + Ptolemaic, Mesopotamia/Iran, Chinese full sequence Xia → PRC, Rome+Byzantium, India Mauryan → Republic, Caliphates+Ottoman, European royal houses, Japan to Reiwa, Korea, Mesoamerica/Andes, African empires, Russia/USSR/RF

Tier 1 — Planned subdomains

• Contemporary history — 1945-present treated as a standalone subdomain when current modern note grows beyond manageable scope, with subdivision into post-war reconstruction, Cold War, post-Cold War, post-9/11, digital age
• Intellectual history — history of ideas, mentalités, Cambridge School (Skinner, Pocock), Begriffsgeschichte (Koselleck), intellectual biography
• Economic history — long-run growth, divergence debates (Pomeranz, Allen), price history, financial crises, slavery and capitalism
• Social history — family, demography, class, gender, race, sexuality, daily life, history from below
• Military history — strategy, operations, tactics, logistics, naval, air, cyber; new military history with focus on soldiers’ experience and civilian impact
• Diplomatic history — international relations, treaties, peace conferences, alliances, statecraft, espionage
• History of science — emerging from philosophy of science, with focus on practice, instruments, networks (Latour, Shapin, Galison, Daston)
• History of technology — invention, diffusion, sociotechnical systems, large technical systems (Hughes), STS

Tier 2 — Planned depth notes

• Roman Empire deep — Republic to fall, Principate to Dominate, frontier, provinces, economy, religion, Christianization
• Chinese dynasties deep — Shang through Qing in dynastic detail, statecraft, examination system, fiscal regimes
• Islamic Golden Age — Abbasid Baghdad, House of Wisdom, Andalusian Cordoba, Cairo Fatimid, science and translation movement
• Renaissance deep — Italian city-states, patronage, humanism, art revolution, Northern Renaissance, civic republicanism
• French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars deep — causes, phases, ideologies, war, legacy
• World War I deep — origins debates (Fischer, Clark, MacMillan), course, home fronts, peace, memory
• World War II deep — global synthesis, Holocaust, Pacific war, home fronts, atomic age origins
• Cold War deep — superpower rivalry, proxy wars, intelligence, cultural Cold War, end of Cold War
• Soviet history deep — revolution, Stalinism, Khrushchev thaw, stagnation, perestroika, collapse
• US history deep — colonial, revolutionary, antebellum, Civil War and Reconstruction, Gilded Age, Progressive, New Deal, post-war, civil rights, contemporary
• British Empire deep — first empire, settler empires, India, Africa, decolonization
• African history deep — pre-colonial states, slave trade, colonial period, independence, postcolonial
• Latin American history deep — pre-Columbian, conquest, colonial, independence, 19th century, 20th century, neoliberalism, pink tide

Tier 3 — Planned catalogs

• Timelines catalog — annotated chronologies by period and region (e.g., Roman emperors with dates and brief, Chinese dynastic timeline, world wars day-by-day at strategic level)
• Monarchies and dynasties catalog — biographical entries for major rulers (Tang emperors, Mughal emperors, Habsburgs, Romanovs, Bourbons, English-British monarchs, Holy Roman Emperors, Caliphs)
• Wars and conflicts catalog — atomic entries per conflict with dates, belligerents, causes, course, outcome, casualties, historiography (Peloponnesian, Punic, Hundred Years, Thirty Years, Seven Years, Napoleonic, Crimean, American Civil, WW1, WW2, Korean, Vietnam, Gulf, Iraq, Ukraine)
• Primary source registries — list of canonical primary sources by period (Behistun, Hammurabi stele, Rosetta Stone, Dead Sea Scrolls, Domesday Book, Magna Carta, Declaration of Independence, Versailles Treaty), with provenance and editions
• Historians catalog — biographical and bibliographical entries for major historians (Herodotus through Harari) with school affiliations and key works

Adjacent libraries

• Philosophy — history of philosophy overlaps with _index (planned Tier 1 history of philosophy note); intellectual history connects to ethics-and-moral-philosophy and epistemology
• Economics — economic history overlaps with history-of-economic-thought and development-economics
• Law — legal history overlaps with constitutional-law and Roman law tradition
• Ecology and Evolution — Big History and environmental history connect deep time to human history
• Math and Compute — cliometrics and digital humanities connect to statistics and NLP

Conventions

• Era notation BCE/CE throughout, not BC/AD
• SI units primary; historical units (cubits, leagues, talents) given in context with modern conversions
• Dates use Common Era; Julian/Gregorian distinction noted where it matters (e.g., October Revolution = November in Gregorian)
• Citations use author plus work plus year throughout
• Book titles italicized as italic
• Tier 1 notes target 500-650 lines
• Tier 2 notes target 800-1200 lines
• Tier 3 catalogs are atomic per entry
• Frontmatter tag history-reference is canonical
• Subarea tags include ancient, medieval, early-modern, modern, historiography for filtering
• Each note ends with an “Adjacent” section listing 4-6 wikilinks to other vault notes
• No emojis in body text