| The History of the History Chart |
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The Author: Andreas Nothiger
Born in Zurich, Switzerland, I studied architecture there, and worked in this field for some time in Zurich and Paris. I also helped to organize some of the big Eastern protest marches based on the Einstein/Russell appeal against nuclear testing. In 1962 I reverted to my Bohemian roots and organized instead an Eastern Jazz party in a restored village in the Toscana, near Siena, Italy. At that time the idea was born to visit the carnival in Rio de Janeiro with some friends. In the best party spirit we agreed that the most exiting way to reach Brazil would be a trip around the world - lasting perhaps an entire year ! In the spring of 1964 we set out on a journey that would lead us across the Middle East, Afghanistan, India, Thailand, Cambodia, Borneo, China, Siberia, and Japan. Before we left Switzerland I obtained an agreement with the largest Swiss newspaper to write weekly stories about our voyage, including articles about the histories of Asian countries - those reports would eventually become the starting point of the World History Project. We briefly worked architecturally in Kabul and later in Bangkok. A trip to Angkor Wat in Cambodia led to some film work with French singer and actor Charles Aznavour. Then a lonely journey through China which was off limits to most tourists during the heydays of the Cultural Revolution. From China we plunged (through Mongolia) into Siberia to the consternation of Soviet officials not used to travellers without Intourist accommodations. Embarrassed Soviet consular staff in Peking had issued visas without Intourist connections on the same day the Peking Intourist office was burned down by fanatical Red Guards. During my one year in Japan I met a remarkable Swiss architect who was presently specializing in research about archaic (preliterate) cultural rituals. I think he is the only person who developed a convincing idea of why the Ise Shrine (near Nara) has been rebuilt every 20 years since the 7th century - still a mystery to Japanese scholars today. Our trip stretched over a longer period of time than planned, and when we finally crossed the Pacific towards Vancouver in Canada, three years had passed by! Funds accumulated from architectural work in Bangkok had vanished also. I decided therefore, to stay and work in Vancouver - never to complete my journey around the world! At first I worked as an architect, conceptualizing a novel design for the Sedgewick Library at the University of British Columbia. (The Library was built in 1970 and its design has won several architectural prizes. Recently I developed a concept for a new type of skyscraper integrating landscaping and building structure). In 1970 I became the owner of the Classical Joint Coffee House, a venue in Vancouver's Gastown district, that developed soon into a well known jazz club where musicians and poets from around the world performed. That was the time when Greenpeace was born in Vancouver and when many of the early support meetings were organized in the backroom of the Joint. During the 1970's a CO-OP radio station was established nearby, and soon weekly live broadcasts from the Joint were transmitted from a little studio in the basement. All those adventures left little time for anything else during the eighteen years when I was managing the "Classical Joint", but when the 1980's came to a close the time seemed right to focus my attention on an entirely new and different project - the World History Chart.
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Evolution of a Concept
The original concept for a synchronoptic timeline dates back to the time of our journey throughout Asia when I was writing about the histories of Asian cultures for a Swiss newspaper. The Asian continent is a vast storehouse of history, but with so many diverse cultural traditions and unfamiliar names that a traditional history book about India, for example, reads to a Western visitor like a foreign telephone directory. In India I began to draft my first timeline so that I could relate its history to the more familiar history of Europe. Because of my training as an architect, it was only natural that I would use a graphic diagram as a helpful guide. And because such a diagram made it possible to see many things at the same time, I called it a Synchronoptic Time Map. Synchronoptical means "seeing at the same time". Many years later - after I had settled in Vancouver - this first crude timeline was expanded to encompass the history of the entire world. Two trips, in 1980 and 1985, to Bremen in Germany helped to establish valuable contacts with the historian Dr. Arno Peters, who endorsed the project enthusiastically. His comprehensive work provided a large part of the scientific basis for the project. The purpose of the new chart was to provide a perspective of world history, to provide a sense for the flow of time.
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The History Chart
The World History Chart begins with David and Solomon and ends
3000 years later with Einstein, Picasso, Roosevelt and Churchill.
In between, in divisions of 10 years, the major events, empires and
invasions, inventions and achievements, rulers and leaders, writers,
philosophers and scientists are listed. Colour-coded lifelines for
464 of history's most influential people; over 3000 facts relating to
science, culture and politics; and 24 historical maps are fitted neatly
into a chart which is, nevertheless, small enough that 3000 years of
world history can be reviewed at a single glance!
For the design of the chart I had four main objectives in mind:
Publication The Chart was finally published by the author in the summer of 1989 and was sold in over 4 000 copies, mostly on the Westcoast. A second edition was published in 1991 by Penguin Books, Canada, Ltd. A third and revised edition was published in 2001 in cooperation with ITMB Publishing Ltd. |
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Reviews
James A.Michener : "... I studied with great care this remarkable historical chart. I find it to be a work of both scholarship and imagination, and I would judge that any student who aspired to thorough knowledge in the field of history and civilization could profit from having this at hand."
James Burke
Isaac Asimov :
Stephen Lewis :
Dr. Arno Peters
Dr. Carl Sagan A lengthy review in the Vancouver Sun newspaper, which was carried by most Canadian newspapers, helped to promote the early sale of the chart.
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Credits
The cooperation of Dr. Arno Peters in Bremen, Germany, is greatly
appreciated. Much of the scientific data has been obtained from his
comprehensive volumes of the "Synchronoptische Weltgeschichte".
Thanks also to the Canada Council who supported the first publication
of the chart with an exploration grant.
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The Future : HyperHistory Online
- that is almost exactly what Hypermedia can do and it seems as if the synchronoptic chart anticipated a medium like the Internet where the World Wide Web offers a wealth of opportunity to expand the synchronoptic concept. HyperHistory Online is a voluminous website using multiple windows. Frames have often been used needlessly but for HyperHistory it proved to be ideal, because it allows for a quick display of scripts within the text panel while retaining the context provided by the synchronoptic graphics inside the main panel. More than 2,000 files with over 50 MB of information are interconnected throughout the site and several hundred www links have been incorporated so far. The interface of HyperHistory is simple and clear enough that anybody can navigate around effortlessly without any expert help. The electronic and the printed versions of the project complement each other: Hypermedia infinitely extends content, while the Chart confers a superior overview of world history.
Cyberworld : Information glut Some of the many major sources used:
Synchronoptische Weltgeschichte by Arno Peters |
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