This is even more so when the history in question is not one of kings and wars, but a narrative of ideas in art, science, literature and politics, and their complex interactions. Time itself has changed: it has become fuller.
As a result, it takes vastly more ink to write a history of modern than of ancient times, and not simply because the amount of available data is greater. Travel, political decisions, the exchange of information, the inception of war, deals and trades in the world’s markets, discoveries in science and medicine and their effects on human societies, all happen so much more rapidly than ever before that it is as if as much history takes place in a contemporary hour as used to unfold in a year or even a decade.
History is accelerating, chiefly because the growth of knowledge is increasing exponentially, and knowledge is a powerful fuel.
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