臺灣歷史學期刊論文與歷史所博碩士論文的世界史研究(1945-2000)

Abstract

To understand research trends of world history in Taiwan, this article explores papers published in forty-one historical research journals and M.A. theses and doctoral dissertations written between 1945-2000. Four aspects-linear analysis, periodic divisions, special history, and comparisons amongst continents-are emphasized in the papers. Among the five periods, none of M.A. theses and doctoral dissertations in world history was accomplished in the first period. However, in the rest of periods, they outnumber the research papers. In terms of percentage, M.A. theses and doctoral dissertations in world history add up to 11.1%, 6.5% higher than research papers. Two factors might explain such difference. First, part of the authors did not continue in this field later on. Second, both language training of scholars and source materials required are inadequate. Basically, the study of world history has long focused on European, American, and Asian history. However, European history has still attracted most attention. What leads to such phenomenon is that study of world history in Taiwan has long been focused on Western history and study of Western history has usually put its emphasis on Europe. Furthermore, world history in both European countries and the United States are all Eurocentric. In the studies of world history in periodical divisions, research papers, M.A. theses and doctoral dissertations all focus on early modern period and after. Research papers take 71.8%, and M.A. theses and doctoral dissertations 96.4%. This reveals that language is an enormous barrier, since doing research onpre-modern history requires languages such as Old English, Latin, Greek, and Egyptian, obviously more difficult for researchers. As for topical history, research papers focus on intellectual-cultural history, important historical issues, political-military history, and social history, taking 76.2%. M.A. theses and doctoral dissertations concentrated on intellectual-cultural history, political-military history, international relations, important historical issues, and the history of religion, adding up to 82.5%. It reveals the huge disparity among fields.