General introduction.
This is a collection of readings from throughout world history and literature. They stand on their own, and also form the basis for weaving together the ebooks in the Galileo Library.
The readings selection is rather eclectic, and just the first step towards something more general and systematic.
Although it's called a "world" history, obviously there are many important eras and places that aren't represented at all. Especially Africa and Latin America. And even in the other areas there are many gaps.
They should be useful to anyone interested in world history and literature, although it probably will be of most use to graduate students and serious scholars.
Keywords.
All of the readings are keyed for place, time, topic, peoples and language. Primary keywords are listed in the keywords section of each page, and it is easy to use these to list all other readings containing the same keys. Either just in the keywords section (that is, in the keyword meta tag), or anywhere in the text itself.
Clicking on the terms puts them into the search field, making searches easy and somewhat automatic. This helps create rather interesting "trails" through the material.
More keys to come.
More keywords, especially place terms, are in the meta tag, and allow easy listing of readings by general areas. Specifically -- Africa, Mideast, Asia, Europe, North America and South America.
The
Seven place key numbers are also listed there, making it possible for more sophisticated listing of certain regions. (Still to be documented, although you may view these by viewing the HTML source of each page.)
Eventually there will be further keys added for periods, topics and such. Unfortunately the primitive state of the web and the lack of multiple keyword metas, make it very difficult to do more advanced categorization. But not impossible. Stay tuned.
