Fragmentary Records

In Poul Anderson's History of Technic Civilization:

the Chaos is the transition from Western to Technic civilization;

the Troubles are the transition from the Solar Commonwealth to the Terran Empire;

the Long Night is the transition from the Terran Empire to post-Technic civilizations, beginning with the Allied Planets.

In SM Stirling's and David Drake's The General series, the Fall is the transition from an interstellar civilization to the isolation of the planet, Bellevue.

Nicholas van Rijn lives in the Solar Commonwealth period and is able to quote from Old Anglic classics like William Shakespeare. Thus, the Chaos did not involve a loss of literary records.

After the Fall, phrases used in a speech to rouse troops have been taken from:

"'...the Fragmentary Codex... very old, written just after the Fall from bits people remembered.'"
-The Forge, CHAPTER FIFTEEN, p. 260.

There are obscure references in Old Namerique to St. Cryssin and to the Sons of the Griks...

We hope that this knowledge is still preserved back on Earth.