ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Dale K. Van Kley

Dale K. Van Kley is a very smart man who studies history, which is like storytelling that actually happened a long time ago. He is really good at understanding how people used to think and what they used to believe. He talks a lot about religion and politics, which are like the rules that people make to live together in a group. He likes to find out how religion and politics influenced each other in the past, which is important because it helps us understand why things happened the way they did. Think of it like a puzzle - he is the person who tries to put all the puzzle pieces back together to explain what happened.