Many contemporary societal challenges manifest themselves in the domain of human–environment interactions.There is a growing recognition that responses to these challenges formulated within current disciplinary boundaries, in isolationfrom their wider contexts, cannot adequately address them. Here, we outline the need for an integrated, transdisciplinary synthesisthat allows for a holistic approach, and, above all, a much longer time perspective. We outline both the need for and thefundamental characteristics of what we call “integrated history.” This approach promises to yield new understandings of therelationship between the past, present, and possible futures of our integrated human–environment system. We recommend aunique new focus of our historical efforts on the future, rather than the past, concentrated on learning about future possibilitiesfrom history. A growing worldwide community of transdisciplinary scholars is forming around building this Integrated Historyand future of People on Earth (IHOPE). Building integrated models of past human societies and their interactions with theirenvironments yields new insights into those interactions and can help to create a more sustainable and desirable future. Theactivity has become a major focus within the global change community.