George Kubler raises the issue of ‘Periodisation’ in his superb book ‘The Shape of Time’. This came up briefly yesterday in John Lindsay’s seminar, which could have been a very useful afternoon rather than an hour that passed too quickly.

Made me remember that during the revolutionary period in Russia following the revolution of 1917 that there were attempts to recreate the periodic table; and raised the question as to whether there had ever been any attempts to re-form historical periods? So for example, the ‘Georgian’ Period would become that of ‘Mercantile Capitalism and Colonialism’; the Victorian period that of ‘industrial capitalism and imperialism’ and so on.

And whether there is a classification scheme of historical periods, along with definitions?

Kubler also discusses ‘inform’ and ‘deform’; so re-form is another category and option.