Timeline by Michael Crichton Page B

a larger population than it had had during the Roman Empire. “So the year 1200 is the beginning of the High Middle Ages — a time of growth, when culture flourished.”
    The Americans were skeptical. “If it was so great, why was everybody building more defenses?”
    “Because of the Hundred Years War,” Marek said, “which was fought between England and France.”
    “What was it, a religious war?”
    “No,” Marek said. “Religion had nothing to do with it. Everyone at the time was Catholic.”
    “Really? What about the Protestants?”
    “There were no Protestants.”
    “Where were they?”
    Marek said, “They hadn’t invented themselves yet.”
    “Really? Then what was the war about?”
    “Sovereignty,” Marek said. “It was about the fact that England owned a large part of France.”
    One of the men frowned skeptically. “What are you telling me? England used to own France?”
    Marek sighed.
    :
    He had a term for people like this: temporal provincials — people who were ignorant of the past, and proud of it.
    Temporal provincials were convinced that the present was the only time that mattered, and that anything that had occurred earlier could be safely ignored. The modern world was compelling and new, and the past had no bearing on it. Studying history was as pointless as learning Morse code, or how to drive a horse-drawn wagon. And the medieval period — all those knights in clanking armor and ladies in gowns and pointy hats — was so obviously irrelevant as to be beneath consideration.
    Yet the truth was that the modern world was invented in the Middle Ages. Everything from the legal system, to nation-states, to reliance on technology, to the concept of romantic love had first been established in medieval times. These stockbrokers owed the very notion of a market economy to the Middle Ages. And if they didn’t know that, then they didn’t know the basic facts of who they were. Why they did what they did. Where they had come from.
    Professor Johnston often said that if you didn’t know history, you didn’t know anything. You were a leaf that didn’t know it was part of a tree.
    :
    The stock trader continued, pushing in the stubborn way that some people did when confronted with their own ignorance: “Really? England used to own part of France? That doesn’t make any sense. The English and French have always hated each other.”
    “Not always,” Marek said. “This was six hundred years ago. It was a completely different world. The English and French were much closer then. Ever since soldiers from Normandy conquered England in 1066, all the English nobility were basically French. They spoke French, ate French food, followed French fashions. It wasn’t surprising they owned French territory. Here in the south, they had ruled Aquitaine for more than a century.”
    “So? What was the war about? The French decided they wanted it all for themselves?”
    “More or less, yes.”
    “Figures,” the man said, with a knowing nod.
    :
    Marek lectured on. Chris passed the time trying to catch Kate’s eye. Here in candlelight, the angles of her face, which looked hard, even tough, in sunlight, were softened. He found her unexpectedly attractive.
    But she did not return his look. Her attention was focused on her stockbroker friends. Typical, Chris thought. No matter what they said, women were only attracted to men with power and money. Even manic and sleazy men like these two.
    He found himself studying their watches. Both men wore big, heavy Rolexes, but the metal watchbands were fitted loosely, so the watches flopped and dangled down their wrists, like a woman’s bracelet. It was a sign of indifference and wealth, a casual sloppiness that suggested they were permanently on vacation. It annoyed him.
    When one of the men began to play with his watch, flipping it around on his wrist, Chris finally could stand it no longer. Abruptly, he got up from the table. He mumbled some excuse about having to check