Historians know the value and import of timelines. The visible progress of event/idea and consequence. Anyone writing a biography knows it is crucial to map out the life of an individual to see the milestones and turning points that feed decisions, changes, and responses. The points at which crucial life moments intersected the larger social and historical framework.
When I first began my own deep dives into looking at the topic, I found book after book that "clumped" and rearranged events, often without dating or signposts. This leads to crating false impressions about the importance, significance, or impact of an event. It is easy to minimize the truly important and move the narrative in new directions. It is easy to hide "the big picture of the forest" by focusing on the lone tree.
For that reason, in my books I applied a chronological approach. An approach that asks the questions "what was going on?", "what new research might apply?", and "is the official narrative being totally honest?"
It is an approach that also allows for the identification of clusters, geographical patterns, and similar data to be extracted.
This macro approach also allows one to avoid cubbyhole thinking. It encourages exploring into other fields, into other work, into other ideas and then seeing logical connections or hidden links.
It is important in modern studies that this time line be examined, adding all the factors, the players, the ones with something to gain, and the ones in fear of losing something, the global issues/influences, and the micro issues/influences.
It may be crucial to all.
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