Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by wolverine876 1213 days ago
Usually, modern history in this sense begins with the Rennaisance (~13th-15th cen). 2,000 years encompasses the Middle Ages, which are held up as nadir of history.
3 comments

> 2,000 years encompasses the Middle Ages

Err, ~ 850 years, maybe 1,000 years at most, from the fall of Rome ( ~470 CE ) to the beginning of the 14th Century (1301 CE) perhaps to 1501 CE depending on your historian of choice.

> held up as nadir of history.

Not so much a low point of human activity, but definitely a low point in the human activity of recording history.

>the Middle Ages, which are held up as a nadir of history.

Mostly as a result of Renaissance- and Enlightenment-era propagandizing. I think we’ve mostly moved beyond that reading of history, thankfully.

I've seen people say that many times, without addressing the merits of the issue. And I've seen many strawperson arguments - i.e., the Middle Ages weren't uniformly awful - but nothing that compares the track records of before and after.

It seems straightforward - most of what we have is post-Middle Ages, from our political systems to our economies, science, technology, arts; and the results are orders of magnitude better.

> encompasses the Middle Ages, which are held up as nadir of history

If you think only Europe matters, sure.

It is still wrong even if you think only Europe matters!