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Tue 15 May, 2007 07:10 am
ive been learning for a long time, about history, science, magic, medicine, logic, philosophy, blah blah blah i read and read.Iv'e noticed alot of correlations between various unrelated subjects, subtle things.
What i need help with is a website that deals with history, but ALOT of it. I cant find any resources that have all the information i need, its either one subject or another, i want to cross reference but with all the BS in todays internet it takes forever to go through search results.
Does anyone know a website that has an extensive libaray of articles and texts on human history science and religion?
If anyone knows any websites specifically regarding humanitys first written history, documents, writings etc.. or the beginning of languages i think i should focus on those before i launch into a human history crash-course from hell.
You may want to Google Ancient History, or Ancient Civilizations. The earliest use of writing was about 3000 BCE in Mesopotamia, with Egypt following in the next heartbeat. Evidence of Chinese literacy is over a thousand years later. Much of the written record from the earliest times are records of property, and lists of kings, etc. There are, however, ancient poems, stories, and "religious" works. Herodotus (one of the first authors to try writing an actual history, rather than myth or just lists of things) was bowled over by the extent of Egyptian history.
The Trojan war was around 1280 BCE, yet our principle source for it is Homer's epics, The Iliad and The Odyssey, that weren't written down until almost 500 years later. There are other records from the time confirming the likelihood of the Trojan War, but those records are fragmentary and generally accessible only to specialist scholars. Thucydides' history of the Peloponnesian War details the conflict between Athens and Sparta (431 BCE to 404 BCE). The 5th and 6th centuries BCE were an important time in the history of religions around the globe, so if you're interested there is quite a lot available on the subject. Materials on Roman history are relatively plentiful. A large portion of Tacitus' historical writings are available covering the Emperors from Tiberius through Nerva (? ... I'm too lazy to confirm Nerva as the last Emperor mentioned in Tacitus ... of well).
One of the most complete and reliable internet sites for ancient texts is Perseus. Perseus has English translations of most of the important ancient Western Civilization texts from Homer to the early medieval period. Unless you are a specialist in ancient languages, this is about as close to primary sources as you can get.
While there are a lot of Western sources that deal pretty directly with history, there isn't anything really similar in Asian History. There the records are less consistent and scattered until more modern times. For the study of Asian History you'll probably want to focus more on secondary sources. Harvard University has one of the best collections of materials dealing with Asian History, but I'm afraid that most isn't available on line. The history of the Ancient Americas is even more sparse, and what we know is largely the result of Archeology and Anthropology. These two disciplines are essential handmaidens to historical study.
There are many modern historical works dealing with ancient history, and some of them are exceptionally good. Typically the narrower the focus, the better the history, but you might want to read some more general histories of the ancient world to get an overview. Typically, this is taught in colleges/universities in courses with titles like, "Survey of World History", and the textbooks are mostly a joke to advanced scholars who love picking them apart for over-generalization, skipping "important" events/trends, etc., and errors in discussing details. Still, in all these textbooks are a good starting point for most students who leave high school with only a sketchy idea of ancient history.
I know you wanted a list of internet sites, and I've mostly talked about books. Sorry, but I'm of a generation that is book oriented and I'm far from convinced that internet sites can really measure up to sitting down and reading serious historical texts that are long and require the reader to ponder the materials before coming to any conclusions. Go to your local library, even the poorest of those will have more materials than you are ever likely to exhaust unless you are a world-class reader and scholar. You can get a pretty good education by yourself, if you have the discipline to pursue it. Of course, matriculation in a good university is desirable for the guidance of knowledgeable teachers and interaction with others who share your interests.
Project Gutenberg:
http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page
The wisdom of the ages, on line.
thanks for the info, mucho appreciated!