Universal History for Our Times

Abstract

History as a serious discipline reached maturity with the national state. Historical research has ordinarily been carried on within national boundaries, and school curricula were until recently dominated by national history. When so-called world history was taught in the Western countries, the world was generally understood to include Europe and the United States only. Since World War II historians have been confronted with an increasing demand for the presentation of history within a larger context, especially from teachers who felt that they could not go on teaching international cooperation in political science classes while propagating the more or less self-centered myths of national history in history classes. This movement has been accompanied by a growing interest in the national histories of the new states of Asia and Africa, and it is to the latter kind of history most of the research that is breaking through the established boundaries has been diverted. So far very few historians have devoted themselves to comparative or truly global studies on which a universal history might be built, and the syntheses of Fernand Braudel and William H. McNeill are the only serious attempts at presenting global history, not as a more or less shapeless mass of information, but within a well-defined theoretical framework. Thus the great collective enterprises are still the most important points of departure for the study of general history and will no doubt remain so for many years to come. Considerable interest must therefore be attached to the editorial principles of these series and to the preconceptions and judgments of their editors and authors. Through popularizations and through teachers the underlying ideas will spread all over the world and contribute toward forming the minds of coming generations. I frequently remind myself that what I teach my students today they may be teaching verbatim (though I hope not) in the year of 2020 to pupils who may be at the head of affairs in 2070. Looked upon in this way, the teaching of history is quite a serious matter. In the English-speaking world the two most important general history projects started after World War II are the New Cambridge Modern History and the History of Mankind, sponsored by UNESCO. Both series are now approaching their conclusion. This review article will concentrate upon two recently published volumes,1 but the main interest will be a discussion of the