Timeline 1800-1899 is now available!
- Amazon print version (KDP ISBN 9798187547777) $62.00
- Ingram print version (ISBN 9798240820236) $70.00
- PDF (non-flowable ebook) via Gumroad: $20
- Index (free download) here
The 19th century unlocked: help change the future by understanding the past
Timeline 1800-1899 is a groundbreaking reference work that transforms the past into a living guide for the present, and helps you shape the future. History comes vividly alive with main entries sorted by decade and category, followed by a selection of full-color illustrations of art and technology, plus excerpts from major fiction and nonfiction writings. A multitude of cross-references connect ideas and events across time. The 80-page index is available as a free PDF.
This Timeline (second in a series: first is here) is perfect for history aficionados, art lovers, bookworms, and anyone seeking context for today’s world. True, the 19th century is long ago, but it brought us the American Civil War, skyscrapers and socialism, Progressivism and Pragmatism—not to mention Beethoven’s Fifth, Pride and Prejudice, the Statue of Liberty, and Munch’s Scream. As Dickens wrote in 1859 (the same year Darwin published On the Origin of Species), “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”
Fascinated by a particular topic? Searching for background on current events? Reading a historical novel? Looking for a quick refresher on 19th-century history? This book is your go-to resource.
The problem
Every day you must make choices about how to deal with the world you live in. Where will you live? How will you support yourself? What sort of food will you eat? Where will you invest your savings? What politicians will you support with your time and money?
Many of those choices will inevitably have long-term, life-altering consequences. If you don’t have a context for making such choices, you’re in danger—and you may not even see the danger coming. If you want to live happily in the present, you need to understand the past.
But also: if you want to change some aspect of the world, you need to know how we got where we are today. That means you need to understand the causes and effects, the ideas and consequences, that brought us to our present state. As Winston Churchill said, “The longer you can look back, the farther you can look forward.”
The solution
So how do you learn enough history to “look back”? Not by rote memorization of names and dates. That might help you win at trivia, but it won’t help you live your life. Narrative histories provide a broader perspective, but they’re so numerous and so voluminous that it’s tough to know where to start.
Timeline 1800-1899 aims to fill the gap between trivia and long-form history. It’s a concise summary of crucial people, works, and events, organized decade by decade. Each decade is broken down into categories: worldwide politics, US politics and culture, science and technology, philosophy and religion, esthetics, architecture, painting, sculpture, fiction, poetry, drama, opera, and music. To round out your image of the era, the Timeline includes illustrations of major artworks and technology, plus substantial excerpts from novels, speeches, pamphlets, letters, poetry, drama, and more.
The Timeline is designed to be manageable. You can read it decade by decade. You can use it as a reference. You can check out a category that interests you. You can look up a very specific topic in the index. Whichever way you use it, the multitude of cross-references allows you to place what interests you in its historical and cultural context. These cross-references help you integrate your knowledge. Such integration is your best defense against being fooled by the skewed interpretations of historians or by AI hallucinations.
To put it another way: the Timeline is meant as a scaffolding on which you can build a better understanding of the past and the present, and increase your ability to change the future—whatever you want that future to be.
Tooooo long ago?
Are you thinking you’ll wait for the timeline of the 20th or 21st century, because the 19th century is too distant to matter? There’s a direct line from the Holy Roman Empire (est. 800 AD) to the rise of Prussia in the 18th century, the rise of Bismarck in the late 19th century, and the rise of Nazism and Adolf Hitler in the 20th. There’s a direct line from the rise of nationalism in the 19th century to ethnic cleansing in Azerbaijan, Ethiopia, and Sudan in the 21st century. There’s a direct line from the economic theories of utopian socialists in the early 19th century to today’s Democratic Socialists. To really understand the 21st century, knowledge of the 19th century is essential.
Why I’m writing these timelines, and my creds
Back in 2020, I was baffled when the world went bat-shit crazy over Covid-19, Trump, and Biden. My go-to means of coping in such situations is to look at the historical context for causes, connections, and correlations. It turned out there was no handy reference for doing that, so I wrote Timeline 1900-2021 (published 2022). Even as I finished that book, I realized I needed to go much further back to understand 21st-century ideas and events.
To judge whether you can trust a historian’s work, it’s useful to know his or her premises and methodology. Timeline 1800-1899 includes:
- The Introduction, setting out what I see as the purpose of studying history. An early version of the Introduction begins here (on Substack); YouTube video here.
- Appendix 1, discussing methodology: the sources I used and the choices I made regarding content and style. An early version starts here (on Substack); YouTube video here.
- Appendix 2 of the Timeline is my autobiography as a writer. It covers my education, experience, and operating principles. An early version starts here (on Substack).
No better time than the present to start
Buy Timeline 1800-1899 to start getting a grip on the past, so you can deal better with the present and plan for the future.
- Print version: 8.5 x 11”, 382 pp. on heavy white paper with full-color illustrations. Available for $62 via Amazon (KDP ISBN 9798187547777) or $70 via Ingram (ISBN 979-8-2408-2023-6). In this particular book, the paper is heavier in the Ingram copies, but the colors are more vivid in the Amazon copies. Libraries and booksellers generally have to order from Ingram, but if you have the option, I’d recommend the Amazon version. The price difference is due to Ingram’s higher production cost.
- Digital version: available via Gumroad, if you want immediate gratification, access to the book wherever you happen to be, and a lower price ($20). The digital version is a non-flowable PDF, which means that on a computer monitor, you’ll see the pages exactly as they are in the print version. WARNING: If you buy the PDF from Gumroad and try to read it in the Kindle app, the text will be extracted in a very, very messy way. I can’t stop you from trying, but I don’t recommend it.
- Index (free download) here.
Timeline and supplementary posts on Substack
- Free followers on Substack have access to the monthly Music playlists and Connections posts for every decade since 1700. Several other free posts appear each month, such as a series of six posts on the Russo-Ukrainian War, 18 on US immigration and citizenship, 5 on the Declaration of Independence and its major anniversaries, and 12 on whether artificial intelligence is reliable for historical research. Links to all these series of free posts are available here.
- Paid supporters on Substack receive the Timeline as a series of monthly posts, decade by decade. These posts are laid out as for the finished Timeline, although some editing always happens before the book appears in print.
More
- Timeline 1700-1799 is available on Amazon, Ingram (ISBN 979-8-8691-8580-8), and Gumroad. More details here.
- Coming in October 2027: a revised version of Timeline 1900-2021, which will appear in print in late 2027. Subscribe on my Substack to receive updates.
- Whether you’re a free or paid subscriber, you’ll be notified as soon as the next book in the Timeline series is published.