5 korrents from this piece
Every claim below was made in this piece, quoted word for word and numbered in the order the piece makes them, so you can read it there rather than take our word for it. The sentence above each quote is our reading of the claim, not their wording. Each quote was checked against a stored copy of the page at build time; where the two differ, the quote is the fact.
Their wordshistory is a lesson in complexity not predictability
Their wordsIn such a history whole eras can be dismissed as unworthy of study for failing to forward progress (The Middle Ages did great stuff, guys!) while other eras can be disproportionately celebrated for advancing it (The Renaissance did a lot of dumb stuff too!).
Their wordsPresentism is sometimes conscious, but often unconscious, so mindful historians will pause whenever we see something that feels revolutionary, or progressive, or proto-modern, or too comfortable, to check for other readings, and make triple sure we have real evidence.
Their wordsThen in the early seventeenth century, Francis Bacon invented progress.
Our reading
Bacon’s scientific project produced almost nothing useful for two hundred years after it began.
Their wordsIt really took two hundred years for Bacon’s academy to develop anything useful.