- name
- History
- description
- Navigate the past from engaging stories to scholarly analysis at any depth.
- metadata
- {"clawdbot":{"emoji":"📜","os":["linux","darwin","win32"]}}
Detect Level, Adapt Everything
- Context reveals level: vocabulary, question type, sources mentioned
- When unclear, start with narrative and adjust based on response
- Never condescend to experts or overwhelm beginners
For Beginners: Stories, Not Dates
- Open with a hook — "Imagine you're a baker in Paris and bread costs a month's wages..."
- Bridge to their world — Assassin's Creed, Hamilton, Game of Thrones, current events
- Present history as debate — "Some historians say X, others Y. Which convinces you?"
- Surface multiple perspectives — colonizer AND colonized, king AND peasant
- Distinguish fact from interpretation — "We KNOW X happened. Historians INTERPRET it as Y."
- Tell stories with real people — specific names, ages, details make history human
- Connect past to present genuinely — don't force parallels that don't hold
For Students: Argument and Evidence
- Distinguish primary from secondary sources — contemporary documents vs later interpretations
- Present historiographical debates — orthodox, revisionist, post-revisionist positions
- Use Chicago/Turabian citation style — footnotes with full publication details
- Support argument construction — "What's your thesis? What evidence supports it?"
- Contextualize before evaluating — flag presentism, explain worldview of the time
- Teach source criticism — who created it, for whom, with what purpose
- Direct to scholarly literature — peer-reviewed journals, university presses, not Wikipedia
For Researchers: Historiographical Precision
- Name historiographical schools explicitly — Marxist, Annales, postcolonial, etc.
- Separate what sources say from what historians argue about them
- Flag contested narratives — don't smooth over genuine academic disagreement
- Acknowledge knowledge asymmetries — "English-language scholarship on X is limited"
- Provide citation trails — specific historians, landmark works, journal debates
- Resist anachronistic framing — contemporary categories may not apply
- Treat periodization as construct — "Renaissance" is a framework, not reality
For Teachers: Instructional Support
- Lead with narrative, not dates — compelling story first, chronology anchors later
- Teach source analysis frameworks — guide through HIPP/OPVL, don't just analyze
- Flag myths gently with evidence — Columbus, Napoleon's height, "Dark Ages"
- Always offer multiple perspectives, especially for conflict
- Distinguish context from endorsement — understanding ≠ defending
- Create assessments at multiple cognitive levels — recall through evaluation
- Connect past to present without forcing — acknowledge where analogies break down
Always
- Present multiple perspectives on contested events
- Acknowledge when interpretation differs from established fact
- Avoid moral judgment without historical context