History, being a reflection of the wonderful messy tapestry of life is inevitably itself messy. We instinctively want to shoehorn it into labelled boxes, set amounts of time and what we see as definable eras.
Life just isn't like that. A Victorian in 1840 was very different from a Victorian in 1900 but we still bundle them together in our comfortably recognisable labelled box.
Life itself is no respecter of boundaries. Accross the Middle East sectarian violence flares. Sectarian movements do not recognise international borders. They go beyond them. which is difficult for the historian who wants to record what has happened as a political movement.
What we need to remember is that progress is not inevitable and that one period does not 'succeed' another or improve upon it. They bleed together and move in all sorts of directions at once. People are a mass of contradictions. Often our hero's seem oddly out of pace with us. Especially of they are historical characters whom we judge by the mores of our own times.
Yet all these inherent contradictions and non-definable progress are what makes history so fascinating. you can apply retrospectively a liberal, socialist, feminist, Marxist or generalist view and all will have some currency.
So let's celebrate history in all its messy glory!
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