Like the other pages in our mood section, this page intends to lend perspective, stoke curiosity, and serve you when you’re in the mood to think about life. Go through these pages, and you’ll learn fascinating things along the way.
One such medium of perspective is human history.
It’s easy to forget, especially in Western cultures where there is so much consideration on the individual, that we are a product of immense history.
Our cultures, traditions, language, and therefore even the way we think is a product of a vast interpersonal evolution. Over the millennia, our species has grown elaborately. We’ve adorned ourselves with an active prefrontal cortex. We’ve adorned ourselves with industry, tools, and processes beyond our comprehension.
This is the world we live in every day. And we take it for granted.
Check out all of Crash Courses playlists. We love them.
The above video, by Crash Course, is our favorite take on history we’ve found online. The course is phenomenally produced, well-researched, hilarious, and deeply insightful / educational. The same can be said of all of the courses offered on their channel. And they’re all free!
Give the video a watch, and if you’re inclined to learn about history, watch the whole course on World History.
On This Page
Links
• Quirky Links
• Changing Values of Culture
• Podcasts
• Youtube Channels
Books
• Historical Overviews
• Case Studies
• On Our Future
Infographics
The following are some fun infographics from across the web. Click each one to see a larger version, or follow the link to view their original source.
The Histomap
A timeless infrographic from 1931 by John B. Sparks. Here’s a Fast Company article about it. Click for the full, uncropped version (it’s tall).
Empires
It’s been said that human history is a story of Empires. This infographic from Just The Flight resonates that outlook.
The Richest Humans in History
A fascinated look at the wealthiest (with adjustment for inflation) people who’ve ever lived. From Visual Capitalist.
A History of Communication
How far we’ve come recently! This one from Randy Krum concisely shows the transformation of communication over the last century.
If Human History Were an 800-Page Book
A visual representation of just how much of human history is as hunter-gatherers. A brilliant graphic, as always, from Wait But Why.
More infographics
- The Unknown Makers Behind Every-day Items
- The History of Money – One and Two
- The History of Beer
- The Deadliest Disease Outbreaks in History
Links
MIscellaneous Links
- Worldometers – A stacked collection of world stats updating in real time.
- Technology in Deep Time: How it Evolved Alongside Us – By the BBC
- World Births and Deaths
- 58 Years Ago – A quick blurb from Seth Godin about a time not too long past.
- Cowbird – A collection of exceptional stories of human life. Over 88,000 stories on 28k topics, from 14k authors in 186 countries.
- The Ascent of Man – A DVD set of an in-depth history documentary series.
- Explained Netflix Series – Not history, per se, but insightful looks into our historical moment of technology.
- Mankind: The Story of All of Us – A DVD set of an overall look at human history
- Experience the story of mankind in 2 minutes.
- Cartographies of Time – A wonderful and diverse collection of visual historical timelines.
- Horizontal History – A deeply insightful (as always) perspective on history and human lifespan.
On the Changing Values of Culture
- Changing Morals – We’re more compassionate than 100 years ago, but more judgmental too.
- Evolutionary Ethics – A study and report on how values change over time.
- How Executives Change Culture – An interesting looks at the strategies of CFO’s to shape company culture.
- Culture Change – A Wikipedia article showing ways that cultural norms can change.
- Changing Culture Starts with Changing Behavior – Another look at organizations as hubs of culture, and how elements of culture are managed.
- An incredible collection of history in the form of 90 cover stories from Time magazine.
- The American Brain – Really, this is an article about how values change in the world. Fantastic as always, from Wait But Why.
Podcasts
- Revisionist History – Malcolm Gladwell applies his world-class authorship to interesting takes on history
- Hardcore History – Dan Carlin gives history lessons that cut through the myths and misconceptions
- The Memory Palace – Excellent storytelling about the past.
- In Our Time – BBC’s enticing look at historical events and how they relate to the present.
- Revolutions – What can’t we learn from them? Luckily, there’s a podcast about them!
YouTube Channels
- Crash Course – Maybe the greatest youtube channel in existence. 🙂 We’re partial to it.
- The History Channel – Like watching the history channel, but you can choose not to watch the garbage!
- Alternate History Hub – What if (insert major historical event here) never happened?
- Simple History – Fun and easy animated accounts of history.
- Oversimplified – Good for overviews and big pictures of historical events.
- History Buffs – Fun and campy animated history lessons.
- Timeline – A collection of long, detailed documentaries about history.
Videos
A humorous and detached account of history
The world we live in seems normal for a human. Actually, it’s anything but that.
From Crash Course’s Big History course.
An awesome overview from Khan Academy
See the formation of countries year by year.
An interesting idea to shift how we look at history.
Books
Historical Overviews
If we were only recommending one book here, this would be it. (The book is now called ‘Sapiens’)
Case Studies
Not about history, but a historical book.
On Our Future
A follow-up to Sapiens
