Shifting sovereignties: a global history of a concept in practice; Sovereignty: European and global histories, 1400-1800

A Revolutionary Narrative of European History: Bonneville's <i>History of Modern Europe</i> (1789–1792)

THE DISCIPLINE OF HISTORY has broadened enormously in the postwar decades, but historians have not. We teach the history of Africa and Asia, but specialists in American history know no more about the history of Africa than their predecessors did in 1940. We have specialists in black history, women's history, and historical demography, but people outside these specialties pay little attention to their work. Where the field of history grew broader and richer, the training of historians grew narrower. The proportion of new Ph.D.'s that can easily teach the standard course is smaller in the 1980s than it was in the 1950s. The new Asianists and Africanists know next to nothing about European or American history. Americanists know less European history than they did thirty years ago. At the level of course offerings, the old surveys in European and American history lost popularity. Departments offered a greater number of specialized courses, while history enrollments declined over all. In recent years, the idea of a broad survey has begun to recover-with some uncertainty about what it ought to be about. A rejuvenated Western Civ is one possibility. A new world history with real concern for the history of non-Western world is another. Ironically, one reason the world history movement has not gained momentum is that few historians have the background necessary to take it on. Many world history courses are team taught, a reasonable solution to begin with. But the very fact that they are is a sad admission. Even those who have recognized the need have also realized how few of their colleagues have the breadth of knowledge required-even for an introductory undergraduate course. Nor is our failure to help graduate students gain a world-historical perspective just of concern to the history departments that train them. What we teach passes to a broader public, and members of that public make political decisions that are crucial for us all. From the heights of power in the White House, we find portrayed a simplistic, tripartite division of the world into ourselves, our enemies, and the rest-who do not count, even though they form the vast majority of the world's population. Historians did not do this all by themselves, of course; the rest of the educational system carries as much responsibility. Nor is everyone in the federal

Latin American and World Histories: Old and New Approaches to the Pluribus and the Unum

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.

This volume gathers a selection of the papers presented at the conference of the Association of European Historians of Latin America (Asociación de Historiadores Latinoamericanistas Europeos, AHILA) held in 2014. The conference tackled multiple questions concerning the ‘global turn’ in historiography, such as the impacts of current globalisation and global history on historiography and the place of national histories in these contexts. More specifically, the volume also aims to focus the relations between Europe and Latin America in the production of global historical knowledge. The volume is arranged in four sections, each of them with four, five, two and three chapters, respectively. The first section, ‘History in Uncertain Times’, opens with a lecture by Reinhart Koselleck on the 50th anniversary of its delivery (1970) on ‘What History Is Still Good For’ and is followed by three pieces pointing in three different directions. In ‘Clio: The Names of History’, François Hartog concludes that we transitioned from a Eurocentric History, with capital H, to multiple histories, with lower-case h, which no longer are being drafted in Europe alone. Karl Schlögel explores space after the ‘spatial turn’ highlighting the tension between the narrative structure that privileges diachronic time and the global perspectives that focus on synchronicity. Finally, Hans-Ulrich Gumbrecht ponders on the contemporary meaning of ‘Universal Literature’ stressing the tension between the local focus of literary works and their global reverberations. The second section, titled ‘Approaches to History in Times of Globalization’, is more coherent than the first one as its four first chapters gravitate towards the concept of globalisation. In ‘Globalization and Global History’, George Zeidan Araújo points towards the pitfalls of Global History such as superficiality and under-conceptualisation, as well as its blurred demarcation from world, transnational and international history. Fábio Franzini focuses on the experiences of Brazilian historians' engagements in historiographical discussions as the necessary backdrop for understanding the challenge of their handling of the global turn. In the longest (more than double the average length) and most informative chapter of the volume Juan Andrés Bresciano provides the most clear, analytic and systematic mapping of the emerging field Global History and some of its cognate fields, such as World History, the History of Globalization and the World System Approach. In commending this chapter, I admit my bias, as Bresciano's classification is surprisingly similar to my own. The last two chapters in this section diverge from the historiographical focus of the previous ones. Lizette Mora offers a theoretical piece (which may have been better placed in the next section) on multiplicity in historiography as a symptom of global capitalism and Luis Ferla touches on a few aspects of digital humanities. In the third section, dedicated to ‘Globalization, Philosophy, History, and Anthropology’, Francine Iegelski confronts the historiographical projects of Koselleck and Hartog with the anthropology of Viveiros de Castro and Lévi-Strauss, as well as the concept of modernity with indigenist perspectives. Federico Navarrete Linares outlines three procedures to articulate an indigenous ‘cosmohistory’ that defies the Western linear ‘monohistory’. In connecting with the works of Koselleck and Hartog, these two chapters provide the volume with a degree of coherence, which otherwise is less apparent. The final section on ‘Global History in Movement’ presents the works of Stefan Rinke and the volume editors, Ingrid Simson and Guillermo Zermeño Padilla. Rinke explores the relationship between Area Studies and Global History by advancing the idea of Latin American history as a bridge between the two. Simson advances another idea: incorporating fictional components into the historical narrative, given that this is all history can provide, namely, a narrative. Finally, Zermeño Padilla summarises some aspects of the collective research project on Iberconcepts, the uses of the same political concepts such as libertad, nación and pueblo in the Spanish-speaking world, as a case in point of global simultaneity. The time lag between the celebration of a conference and the publication of its papers is always a drawback as many assertions made in 2014 may be dated, as is the case here, for instance, on the clarity with which the field of Global History has been defined so far. The volume offers more diversity of perspective than a cohesive horizon. Its diversity includes multidisciplinarity, thematic variety, and the geographical spread of its authors across parts of the Atlantic basin. These are some of the merits that make it a welcomed addition to the ongoing multi-perspectival takes on Global History and the relationship between contemporary globalisation and historiography.

Reviewed by: World History and National Identity in China: The Twentieth Century by Xin Fan Ke Ren Xin Fan. World History and National Identity in China: The Twentieth Century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021. 251 pp. Hardcover ($99.99) or e-book. The study of the politics and intellectual stakes of historical production has long been an important subfield in modern China studies. Xin Fan’s World History and National Identity in China is a valuable and unique addition to this literature. On the one hand, it shares the approach of recent studies in focusing not only on the politics of historical writing but also on the structural changes in the education system, the formation of academic disciplines, and the rise of modern print culture.1 On the other hand, this book spans the entire twentieth century and places its emphasis not on the historiography of China but on the development of world history (世界史 shijie shi) as an academic field from the late Qing to contemporary China. Furthermore, in using sources such as autobiographies, correspondence, and, importantly, archived personnel files and declassified secret reports, it sheds empathetic light on the “agency of non-Western world historians in writing history based on the lived experiences of some of the most significant Chinese world historians” (10). In the opening chapter, Fan locates the origins of modern Chinese world-historical writing in the late Qing, connecting long-standing Neo-Confucian and statecraft interests in compiling geographical knowledge of foreign realms to recent changes in the New Policies period under a reformed education system. This shift is evidenced in the work of Zhou Weihan (周维翰 1870–1910), a Changzhou scholar and physician, whose An Outline of Western History (西史綱目 Xishi gangmu), published in 1901 through the translation-oriented Shanghai press Jingshi wenshe (經世文社), represented a new temporally focused approach to world history. Instead of idealizing past epochs such as the Three Dynasties period like many other late Qing intellectuals, Zhou applied universal categories to his comparative analysis of ancient European and Chinese societies, while he held onto Confucian notions such as human nature (性 xing) in an “attempt to embrace the belief in a common humanity in overcoming the differences between the East and West” (48). For Fan, Zhou’s seemingly cosmopolitan approach would serve as both a standard and a challenge for later generations of Chinese scholars whose study of world history proceeded under vastly different professional and political circumstances. Professionalization, print capitalism, and the shifting priorities of Republican and wartime China serve as the context of chapter 2. Here, Fan focuses on Western-educated “returned students” who became university professors and practicing world historians. Although Chen Hengzhe (陳衡哲 1893–1976), who was notably the only renowned woman [End Page E-28] historian in China during this period, used her writings on European history in the 1920s to argue for the need to embrace liberal internationalism as an antidote to imperialism, her US-trained peers would turn to cultural nationalism as they became engulfed in the cultural debates and wartime exigencies of the 1930s and 1940s. The exemplary figure here is Lei Haizong (雷海宗 1902–1962), who offered sustained critiques of Eurocentric “world history” and periodization as practiced by Western scholars and developed a “cultures/civilizations” schema to write the history of different world regions. Lei’s culturalist approach embodied the conservative stance taken by intellectuals associated with the wartime Zhanguo ce (戰國策) clique, who sought nationalist solutions to China’s revival through historical analogies between their own time and the Warring States period. If the demands of nationalism influenced many Chinese scholars in the 1940s, it was Marxism and the structural transformation of academic institutions that reshaped the practice of world history in the early People’s Republic of China (PRC). Chapter 3 traces these developments through the establishment of “teaching and research units” (教研室 jiaoyanshi), the shift to Russian sources and textbooks, and the Soviet-style training of a new generation of world historians in an important Ancient World History Seminar in Changchun. While some world historians had trouble adapting to the political and institutional changes, others still tried to carve out spaces of autonomy even as they worked within imposed categories. Chapter 4 examines this dynamic...

In contrast to national historical approaches, global history responds to the cultural and intellectual needs of communities, societies and cultures are increasingly interconnected. Global history is an appropriate way of looking to “our past”, in an era of accelerated globalization, helping to “de-provincialize” the discipline. For historians of Europe, global history approaches offer a useful ground for embedding, relativizing and enriching their views and perspectives, even when they continue to work as historians of Europe and do not contemplate to become global historians. As many examples show, global history is emerging as a field in which new forms of cooperation between history and the neighbouring disciplines, particularly the social sciences, can be practiced in new ways. Global history revives the interest in comprehensive structures and large-scale processes; it enhances the analytical power of history as a discipline. It also raises several problems which are not yet resolved. Very different types of discourses and studies are usually lumped together under the heading of “global history”, four of them are here considered.

AS EACH NEW ACADEMIC YEAR BEGINS, many students come to our classes bringing a limited understanding of historical methodology. Far too many view history as a subject that will be boring, requiring memorization of endless dates and facts. Others bring myths they gleaned from stories, movies or television, saying that history always repeats itself, that Ivan the Terrible slaughtered all his children, or that one king was a really good guy while another was a monster. All of us would prefer that this were not so; we secondary-school teachers are responsible for changing such perceptions. It is particularly the case for those of us who are helping our students receive college credit for work done in high school. True as this is for AP United States or European history, it is especially so for the projected AP examination in world history because our students know even less about it. It is therefore vital that a world history course introduce students to the processes by which historians study the past. While world history courses differ widely from college to college, the Task Force for the new examination decided to concentrate upon six habits of mind or skills as fundamental to such a course. We divided these items into two groups: those addressed by any history and those addressed in world history. Any history course should teach students to: 1) Construct and evaluate arguments (how to read secondary sources and to use evidence to make

The topics students have difficulty in understanding and learning in history course

The topics that students are curious about in the history lesson

European Legal History - Global Perspectives Working Paper for the Colloquium ,European Normativity - Global Historical Perspectives' (Max-Planck-Institute for European Legal History, September, 2nd-4th, 2013)

Ancient Rome, the once glorious empire, left behind a rich legacy like a bright star, illuminating the development of Western civilization. On the positive side, the legal legacy of ancient Rome is far-reaching. The Roman legal system was complete and logical, which laid a solid foundation for the development of the later legal system. Its emphasis on the principles of fairness and justice, as well as the protection of private property, has become an important cornerstone of modern law. In terms of political system, the republic and monarchy of ancient Rome provided an important reference for the evolution of western political system. Rome's administrative model and bureaucratic system have influenced the governance structure of later countries to a certain extent. In addition, the architectural achievements of ancient Rome were amazing. The magnificent Colosseum, Pantheon and other buildings not only reflect the superb engineering technology, but also show the aesthetic pursuit and grand spirit of the ancient Romans, providing a source of inspiration for the development of later architectural styles. However, the legacy of ancient Rome was not all positive. The expansion of the Roman Empire brought long periods of war and destruction, bringing great suffering to the peoples of the conquered regions. In terms of culture, the late Roman culture gradually moved towards extravagance and hedonism, which corroded the social atmosphere to a certain extent. At the same time, the huge bureaucratic system of the Roman Empire also had problems such as corruption and inefficiency, which became an area of vigilance in the governance of later states. To sum up, the influence of the ancient Roman legacies on Western civilization is complex and multifaceted. We should not only recognize their positive contributions and draw wisdom and strength from them, but also be alert to their negative factors and take history as a mirror to better promote the development of modern civilization. The Roman Empire is one of the most famous and influential ancient civilizations in European history. The legacies of ancient Rome have had a profound impact on European and world history. This paper will start with the heritage of the ancient Roman Empire and take a dialectical approach to explore the influence of the ancient Roman heritage on Western civilization.

Artistic Reception of Images of Ukraine and Ukrainians in Mykola Gogol’s Taras Bulba (First Edition, 1835). This paper discusses Mykola Gogol’s story Taras Bulba (1835) and its exploration of Ukrainian history and culture. Gogol’s work reflects his deep study of Ukrainian and world history, as well as his collection of Ukrainian folklore. The story presents a mythopoetic image of the Ukrainian Cossack and addresses the historical context of the Zaporizhian Sich’s liquidation. Gogol aims to poetically describe the grand history of the Zaporizhian Sich and recreate the Ukrainian Cossack imagery by blending European heroic epic traditions with Ukrainian folklore. Gogol’s collections, including Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka and Mirgorod, form a cohesive representation of his development and exploration of Ukraine’s image. The paper further highlights Gogol’s reflections on Ukrainian history and the Cossacks in his articles and emphasizes the significance of the term ‘Ukraine’ in Taras Bulba. The story portrays Ukraine as a distinct entity within European history. Gogol’s mythopoetic approach, inspired by Ukrainian songs and dumy, shapes the depiction of Ukrainian history and the passionate aspirations of the Ukrainian Cossacks. The story draws on ancient and medieval heroic epic traditions and intertwines them with domestic narratives of Taras Bulba’s family. Gogol creates images of Ukrainian Cossacks as noble knights defending their faith and ideals. Artistic Reception of Images of Ukraine and Ukrainians in Mykola Gogol’s Taras Bulba (First Edition, 1835) This paper discusses Mykola Gogol’s story Taras Bulba (1835) and its exploration of Ukrainian history and culture. Gogol’s work reflects his deep study of Ukrainian and world history, as well as his collection of Ukrainian folklore. The story presents a mythopoetic image of the Ukrainian Cossack and addresses the historical context of the Zaporizhian Sich’s liquidation. Gogol aims to poetically describe the grand history of the Zaporizhian Sich and recreate the Ukrainian Cossack imagery by blending European heroic epic traditions with Ukrainian folklore. Gogol’s collections, including Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka and Mirgorod, form a cohesive representation of his development and exploration of Ukraine’s image. The paper further highlights Gogol’s reflections on Ukrainian history and the Cossacks in his articles and emphasizes the significance of the term ‘Ukraine’ in Taras Bulba. The story portrays Ukraine as a distinct entity within European history. Gogol’s mythopoetic approach, inspired by Ukrainian songs and dumy, shapes the depiction of Ukrainian history and the passionate aspirations of the Ukrainian Cossacks. The story draws on ancient and medieval heroic epic traditions and intertwines them with domestic narratives of Taras Bulba’s family. Gogol creates images of Ukrainian Cossacks as noble knights defending their faith and ideals.

Introduction - What is Military History - What is Political History - What is Economic History - What is Social History - What is the History of Science - What is Women's History - What is Diplomatic History - What is Religious History - What is Third World History - What is Intellectual History - What is the History of Art - What is the History of Popular Culture - What is European History - Bibliography - Index

Global History: Universal and World