About this Site
Alexa site ranking -- first among world history websites.
Purpose
To tell without illusions or ideological restraints the story of our ancestors, our parents and us.
Method
Historians begin with inquiry, and inquiry requires doubt. Like a good scientist a good historian maintains a degree of doubt and modesty, leaving himself open to newly perceived connections and differentiations. This is what I try to do with my history narratives.
I describe humanity from prehistory to the 21st century. I read primary sources, but such a gigantic subject also requires help from people who have devoted their professional lives to a narrow focus of study. Such historians complain about writers of broader histories benefiting from their research. To them I offer this support: all of us should pay them more attention and ignore junk history. Some of us are exposed to a lot of junk history. I try as hard as I can to be above junk history.
I enjoy consensus among experts and people in general, but I'm not inclined to conform to anyone's idea of correctness. If you disagree with me, I would appreciate from you some details that support your point of view.
Sections
Timelines from 4.3 million years ago to the present, year by year until 1931. After 1931 the entries are listed by day. Each entry is no more than one paragraph, sometimes of only one line and sometimes several lines.
Macrohistory explained, a World History Outline (six printed pages) and a list of selected macrohistorical works with comments, from Spengler to works as recent as 2010.
Apart from my narratives, I have a section that consists of my blatant opinions on historical matters and current events.
The purpose of my book summaries is largely to provide historical information.
My biographies entitled "Inside a Few Heads" are largely about philosophy and are opinion pieces.
Editing
As of August 17, 2010. Doug and Kathy Hall have begun making much needed editing contributions to this site.
Biography
My name: Frank Eugene Smitha. Joined the Marine Corps in September, 1951. Returned to civilian life in 1954 at the age of twenty. Worked as a laborer and began taking courses at Glendale Junior College, including remedial English. Traveled to Europe. Read a lot of books. Bored to death working on assembly lines. Enjoyed driving a Yellow Cab while living at Venice Beach.
In 1963 I entered U.C.L.A. as a junior, majoring in sociology. Upper division work in sociology I found too reductionist and too abstract. I shifted to the greater specificity of history while remaining associated with the University of California at the U.C. Berkeley campus. There I worked part-time running copy machines but did not take courses for credit. Instead I often sat with roommates in auditorium-size history classes or attended guest lectures and did independent study, using the campus library and a borrowed library card from a graduate student friend for access to the stacks. I tried to write for publication, and I received rejection notices with enough praise to lure me on. My main interest in history was World War One. Debate about the origins of that war was a muddle in the mid-1960s. The view I acquired then is now widely accepted.
I left Berkeley in 1973, and, to satisfy the insistence of my Ph.D. candidate wife, I graduated from California State University, East Bay -- at the age of forty-three - with Dean's List honors and a B.A. in history. One of my professors tried to acquire a scholarship for me from his Alma Mater, Stanford, but without success, and I had to go back to earning a living.
Ten years later, in 1987, I began writing the historical narratives that first appeared as Antiquity Online.
I now live in Ohio.
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