Don't our traditional forms of information communication, notably "the book" and especially "the textbook" contribute to our belief in linear history?
I think that "the textbook" definitely contributes to our belief of linear history. In all the textbooks I have had in my social studies classes, they all have at least one linear timeline in them. Some of my textbooks even have a linear timeline every chapter! I hadn't even heard of the other three timelines until class this week. At my middle school, my social studies teacher made us make a few linear timelines based on what happened in the chapter. I always just thought of that as a timeline. I thought linear timelines were the only type of historical timelines. Because of this, I understand the linear timeline the most because it is what I have always learned about since elementary school.
Books that I read even have a linear timeline in them. For example, sometimes I read diaries of historical people (and some fictional people), and their whole book is basically a linear timeline of what is happening in their lives. Some books just have a story on a fictional character's life. For example, the book may jump back and forth in time talking about different events. Other books I read have a special section that they put in the end that has a timeline with events that happened after the book. Other books I read have a section in the beginning of the book that really foreshadows the events that are going to happen. This type of timeline is everywhere I look, and it really does surprise me that I never even knew about the other types of timelines.
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