Small History and Big History

History has two different and related types: small and big. Big history is what you learn in school. It’s the major events of the past: the American Revolution, World War II, the Thirty-Years War, Sengoku Jidai, and so on. Big history usually has some sort of date you needed to memorize. Small history sits on the ground. It’s the personal stories that interact with big history. Big history influences small history, and small history pushes big history.

Big history has many people writing about ...