"We had run up against the Judeo-Christian commitment to one God, one religion, one reality, that has cursed Europe for centuries and America since our founding days. Drugs that open the mind to multiple realities inevitably lead to a polytheistic view of the universe. We sensed that the time for a new humanist religion based on intelligence, good natured pluralism and scientific paganism had arrived."The Science of History: Pregnant Moments vs Linear Chronologies
-Dr. Timothy Leary (recounting Aldous Huxley's 1960 demand for a new world religion)
The study of history can be approached from a number of directions, and using a number of diverse assumptions... but not all of them are equal, and some are extremely destructive.
Some people believe that history is simply associating events onto a linear time line and then adding creative writing to explain away causes of those events. Others presume that history is divided by "ages" with the "causes" of each event explained away by the age in which they occur. Others presume that the events across ages are caused by a never-ending class struggle of rich vs poor while others presume no causality exists behind the events on a time line except for raw hunger, greed or stupidity.
Over the years, I have come to the conclusion that history is best understood as a living process shaped by 1) ideas of good and evil, 2) decisions to act according to those ideas whether right or wrong, and 3) the freedom to embrace error, corruption and lies which often wear the clothing of truth.
When those false ideas are permitted to shape the cultural standards of what is considered "normal" for too long, decay across all spectrums of life can be found.
Comment: See Matt Ehret's prequel: Sir Henry Kissinger: Midwife to New Babylon