An academic history can be a large, multivolume work such as the Cambridge Modern History, written collaboratively under some central editorial control. In the 19th century the idea appeared in universities that a definitive history could be written of a major region of the world for a great span of time - in a similar manner to the way in which people compiled an encyclopedia. The chosen time period was subdivided into eras and one volume specified for each. Within each volume there would be a fixed number of topics. Either each volume would be written by one historian on the faculty, or else each topic would be handled by a faculty member throughout the series of volumes, or perhaps another system of specialization would be prescribed. This procedure resembled that undertaken on such cam