What is Global History?
March 2008, Polity
Others are social and cultural, touching upon issues of
migration, trade, language development and differentiation,
institutions of enslavement and of freedom, traditions of marriage
and child-rearing, the emergence of large-scale political
organization from early kingdoms to vast empires, republics and
federations, and the management of war and peace.
To deal with such challenging issues, global historians draw
upon new techniques of analysis and comparison. But they also
continue venerable traditions, inherited from the earliest
civilizations, of narrating the past on the most comprehensive and
significant scale possible.
This book examines the long search for an integrated human story, and particularly the points at which rapid changes of philosophy and perspective in the twentieth century transformed the historical disciplines. It provides the perfect introduction to global history for students and scholars alike.
Chapter 1 The Great Story Impulse.
Chapter 2 Divergence.
Chapter 3 Convergence.
Chapter 4 Contagion.
Chapter 5 Systems.
Chapter 6 What Global History Is.
- An introduction to the relatively new discipline of global
- Written by a prominent American scholar, with a strong
- Clearly defines what global history is before discussing the
main figures, trends and methodologies of the field
- Global history is a growth area of study, but one which is as
yet badly understood. Academics and students will welcome this
- Suitable for adoption on courses from 2nd year undergraduates onwards
"An outstanding introduction to the problems and possibilities of global history. Professor Crossley has fearlessly negotiated her way through a vast body of literature, full of contradictions and conundrums, and emerged with brilliant heuristic strategies for achieving the impossible."
Richard J. Smith, Rice University
"In learned and lucid prose, this slim volume conveys the great debates and documentary advances through which global history became a major new field of study. Pamela Kyle Crossley traces the evolution of four interpretive approaches and reaches an astute conclusion on 'what global history is'. This book will enable a wide readership to join productively in the discussion on global change."
Patrick Manning, University of Pittsburgh