Part of being a good world historian, or I suppose any historian for that matter, is having an active imagination. We have to be able to constantly ask new questions and seek new interpretations of the past. I came across this animated short, part of a longer talk by Jeremy Rifkin (available here), that briefly looks at world history as a project leading toward greater and greater levels of empathy in the human race.

While it is not very fashionable for historians to incorporate these sorts of facts or evidence into their work, there seems to be something really valuable here. Aside from being an interesting piece on compassion and empathy, it also points to alternative histories revolving around emotion, biology, psychology, or spirituality instead of great men and important dates. These factors are clearly part of the story of human history with cultural and social origins rooted in particular times and places, but have yet to be fully incorporated into the work of most historians. How do we do this? I don’t know. Should we try to do this in our work? Yes. Something for me to work on I guess.