About the Book
Choice Outstanding Academic Title 2023
This volume brings together 25 defining texts in global history. These pieces cover approaches to the subject from antiquity to the present century and, taken together, show the development of the discipline, providing a solid historiographical, theoretical and methodological overview that will be invaluable for students. The collection gives a unique sense of how, at different times, in different cultural circumstances, students of the past have approached the problems of encompassing the world in a single narrative or theory.
This is a reader with an implicit story to unfold. Felipe Fernandez-Armesto tracks how a global understanding of history originated in prophetic writings, how the “Renaissance discovery of the world” multiplied the opportunities for historians to think about history globally, how scientific investigations of change came to exert influence and inspire new thinking among global historians, how “culture wars” ensued between advocates of scientistic and culturalist models and how changing contexts in the 20th century produced new thematic approaches to the world as a whole.
Each part is introduced, setting it in context and explaining the impact of its subject matter on the discipline, as well as the relations between the texts and their place in the overall development of global history.
Table of Contents:
Introduction
Part I: Prophecy and Providentialism
1. The Book of Daniel, Chapters 7-12
2. Paulus Orosius, Seven Books Against the Pagans, Dedication, From Book I, Section 1 and from Books II (Section 1), V (Sections 1-2) and VII (Sections 1-3)
3. M. Reeves, Joachim of Fiore and the Prophetic Future, From Chapter 1, “Joachim and the Meaning of History”
4. From Ibn Khaldun, The Muqaddimah: An Introduction to History
Part II: From Providence to Progress
5. Johann Gottfried Herder, Outlines of a Philosophy of the History of Man, Book XV, Chapters 1-5
6. Immanuel Kant, Idea for a Universal History from a Cosmopolitan Point of View, On History [1784]
7. G.W.F. Hegel, Lectures on the Philosophy of World History, “The Course of the World’s History,” vol. iii, sections 60-99.
8. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Manifesto of the Communist Party [1848], Chapter 1
9. Leopold von Ranke, Universal History: The Oldest Historical Group of Nations and the Greeks [1884], Preface
Part III: The Scientific Temptation
10. Herbert Spencer, “Progress: Its Law and Consequences” [1886], Chapter 1
11. Christopher Dawson, The Age of the Gods [1928], “Introduction”
12. David Christian, “World History in Context” [2003]
13. Richard Lewontin and Joseph Fraccia, “Does Culture Evolve?” [1994]
14. Felipe Fernández-Armesto, “How to be Human: A Historical Approach” [2010]
15. Daniel Lord Smail, “Neuroscience and the Dialectics of History” [2012]
Part IV: Comparative and Contextual Approaches
16. Ian G. Simmons, ‘“To Civility and Man´s Use”: History, Culture, and Nature’ [1998]
17. Jared M.Diamond, “Colonization Cycles in Man and Beast” [1977]
18. Kenneth Pomeranz, “Social History and World History from Daily Life to Patterns of Change” [2007]
19. Bruce Mazlish, “Comparing Global History to World History” [1998]
Part V: The Eurocentrism Controversies
20. Arnold J. Toynbee, “My View of History” [1948]
21. Samuel Huntington,. “The Clash of Civilizations” [1993]
22. J.C. van Leur, Indonesian Trade and Society: Essays in Asian Social and Economic History [1967], Chapter 1: “On Methodology and Theory”
23. W.H. McNeill, “A Defence of World History” [1982]
Envoi: The New Narratives
24. David Christian, “The Return of Universal History” [2010]
25. David Northrup, “Globalization and the Great Convergence: Rethinking World History in the Long Term” [2008]
About the Author :
Felipe Fernandez-Armesto is William P. Reynolds Professor of History at the University of Notre Dame, USA. Some of his recent publications include 1492: The Year Our World Began (2011), Pathfinders: A Global History of Exploration (2006) and The Conquistadors: A Very Short Introduction (2011).
Review :
In spirit, global history is an age-old endeavour. At the same time, each manifestation is highly specific to its moment, with its own particular set of constraints and possibilities. Prof. Fernández-Armesto shows this with aplomb for the Western tradition, not just through the essays, which are judiciously chosen, but also through his introductory remarks, which are written with flare and a telling eye, highlighting the import of their subject for both students and scholars.
