HISTORY

We tend to view history sequentially and vertically. Not laterally and horizontally . As such much depth of field and context is lacking. It is like studying through a straw. As we view history, we also view time, with the same results, lack. Perhaps , in addition to learning of simply one person, or one event, we would benefit better by knowing of other persons or events, that were contemporaneous with them. For example, take Galileo, the Italian priest who advanced the provable fact of heliocentrism beyond the prevailing belief in geocentricm. He proved that the earth and other planets orbited the sun, not that the sun and the other planets orbited the earth. Galileo advanced beyond Copernicus' circular orbits conception, proving the to be spherical. Galileo lived in the 17th century. As such, he was alive at the same time as Sir Isaac Newton, the great English natural philosopher and mathematician, and William Shakespeare the poet and playwright of great renown. Galileo Galilei of Pisa lived from 1564-1642. Galileo was born in the same year as Shakespeare and he died the year Newton was born. http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/G/GalileoG.html