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Global Timeline: A Database of Movies, Books, and World History

Global Timeline is a relational database of "Movies, Books, and History" (MBHdb). It includes tables about periods and events in world history from the first civilizations to the present time. The database was put together over many years after reading books, listening to lectures, and watching movies. Movies about people living in different times and places help to draw us into world history. 

Above are the last two lines of a poem by W.B Yeats: The Second Coming.

Also see Alfred Tennyson's poem about the end of war.

"I come, and go, and come. When Righteousness
Declines, O Bharata! when Wickedness
Is strong, I rise, from age to age, and take
Visible shape, and move a man with men,
Succouring the good, thrusting the evil back,
And setting Virtue on her seat again."
                                                                    Bhagavad Gita (Edwin Arnold tr.)

What if history is determined not by materialistic forces but by spiritual ones? The quotations shown on this page suggest that the majestic history of mankind is caused by the evolution of knowledge as revealed by the Great Teachers. Also, see the quotation by the historian Arnold Toynbee who said in 1955, "Religion has come, once again, to take the central place in my picture of the Universe."

Global Timeline was designed to help students of world history explore the story of our past. Where did we come from and where are we going? My goal was to publish the database showing a timeline of the major civilizations from about 2000 BC until now. The main function of the timeline is to show the big picture of world history and enable "zooming in" to see, for example, all the movies of a period, The main tables are minor periods, events, and movies. See Tables to understand how these tables are related. 

Please see the links above to learn more about MBHdb. There are 444 Minor Periods that encompass Eastern and Western civilizations. The Bibliography contains 50 lecture series and 248 books. "Movies" includes 79 documentaries, and 554 movies and miniseries.