Yesterday, and Before
May 23, 2008 5:36 AM Subscribe
HistoryWorld is a general-knowledge website, designed for anyone above the age of about twelve with an interest in history. I found the site searching for dance history, but it includes 400 broad topics with more added all the time. It approaches history as a narrative, making full use of chronology. This is for the student as well as the researcher.
'What happened next?' is for all of us a fascinating question, and one of direct relevance. At the heart of history there is inevitably a sequence of events. We all know separate bits of history, of different places and times, but it is often extremely hard to relate them to what was happening in other subjects or in other parts of the world. This is one area where the internet has a distinct advantage over the printed word. Links are much more easily made online than in books. Through the medium of Timelines, linked to extensive background content, and interconnecting 'Tours through Time', HistoryWorld provides the user with the fabric of world history.
If you know the broad subject you want to read about, you should probably go straight to the list of 400 Histories with 6000 selected events (amounting in all to more than a million words). The titles are arranged alphabetically.
You can choose to read any History either in its Plain Text version (quicker to read, and you can print them out) or in Interactive form. In the Interactive version of the Histories you can link at a click to Tours (letting you travel fast through time on interconnecting trails) or to WhatWhenWhere (telling you what was going on elsewhere at the time you are reading about).
The concept from the start was that HistoryWorld must be extremely interactive in its presentation and retrieval systems. It was also a central theme that the content must have a precisely focused index of the traditional kind, available to the user on every page, rather than relying on the erratic results of word searches.
'What happened next?' is for all of us a fascinating question, and one of direct relevance. At the heart of history there is inevitably a sequence of events. We all know separate bits of history, of different places and times, but it is often extremely hard to relate them to what was happening in other subjects or in other parts of the world. This is one area where the internet has a distinct advantage over the printed word. Links are much more easily made online than in books. Through the medium of Timelines, linked to extensive background content, and interconnecting 'Tours through Time', HistoryWorld provides the user with the fabric of world history.
If you know the broad subject you want to read about, you should probably go straight to the list of 400 Histories with 6000 selected events (amounting in all to more than a million words). The titles are arranged alphabetically.
You can choose to read any History either in its Plain Text version (quicker to read, and you can print them out) or in Interactive form. In the Interactive version of the Histories you can link at a click to Tours (letting you travel fast through time on interconnecting trails) or to WhatWhenWhere (telling you what was going on elsewhere at the time you are reading about).
The concept from the start was that HistoryWorld must be extremely interactive in its presentation and retrieval systems. It was also a central theme that the content must have a precisely focused index of the traditional kind, available to the user on every page, rather than relying on the erratic results of word searches.
jontyjago, you may try viewing a particular event within the site. It then remembers that and uses is as a basis for all the other interactivity.
posted by netbros at 6:06 AM on May 23, 2008
posted by netbros at 6:06 AM on May 23, 2008
Nope I'm getting a 404 Not Found on every single link - how bizarre. I'll try later from home.
posted by jontyjago at 6:10 AM on May 23, 2008
posted by jontyjago at 6:10 AM on May 23, 2008
It's working for me.
Also, it's giving me a nerdgasm. I love this.
posted by WalterMitty at 6:28 AM on May 23, 2008
Also, it's giving me a nerdgasm. I love this.
posted by WalterMitty at 6:28 AM on May 23, 2008
Link didn't work for me either, jontyjago. But, I was able to Google on History World and click on their "historyworld.net" link and get there. Weird. I'm currently at Minneapolis Pubilc Library and using one of their computers, if that makes a difference.
posted by marsha56 at 8:25 AM on May 23, 2008
posted by marsha56 at 8:25 AM on May 23, 2008
This looks so awesome. Thanks netbros.
posted by nooneyouknow at 8:46 AM on May 23, 2008
posted by nooneyouknow at 8:46 AM on May 23, 2008
Excellent, netbros, thanks, between this and jtron's Blonde Zombies^ I should have an fun and swell holiday weekend on the tubes.
posted by dawson at 9:46 AM on May 23, 2008
posted by dawson at 9:46 AM on May 23, 2008
That is a very cool site, old school bookmarked.... IMO if someone doesn't have any interest in any part of history they have a serious problem.... mall shooter?
Cool Site
posted by democrat69 at 11:04 AM on May 23, 2008 [1 favorite]
Cool Site
posted by democrat69 at 11:04 AM on May 23, 2008 [1 favorite]
the author's name is bamber! that's too cool.
he kind of looks like a nice noam chomsky.
fabulous site. thanx, netbros!
posted by CitizenD at 1:31 PM on May 23, 2008
he kind of looks like a nice noam chomsky.
fabulous site. thanx, netbros!
posted by CitizenD at 1:31 PM on May 23, 2008
Bookmarked. I love stuff like this!
posted by sandraregina at 7:27 PM on May 23, 2008
posted by sandraregina at 7:27 PM on May 23, 2008
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posted by jontyjago at 5:42 AM on May 23, 2008