Human History and Long-Term Social Processes: Toward a Synthesis of Chronology and Phaseology

The terms in the title of this chapter stem from two different, and diverging, traditions in European culture. First there is the idea of “human history” in the sense of “history of humanity.” This idea goes back as far as classical antiquity, where it culminated in St. Augustine’s bold attempt in The City of God to combine biblical history and pagan Roman history into one ecumenical history describing the vicissitudes of humanity from its earliest beginnings to the present.