With the year-by-year sequence, there is no telescoping, no skipping over the boring parts of life. History happens when babies are born, the laundry gets done, the crops are planted. One day follows the next, year by year, so that the boring parts of life coexist with the dramatic ones. Family members pull away from life on the farm, and gravitate to cities. Family dynamics are reconfigured, as allegiances realign in war, peace, birth, death and the stuff of daily life.