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What is Global History?

ISBN: 978-0-745-63300-8

March 2008

Polity

152 pages

Description
Global and world history address the deep structural changes that have shaped human experience. Many are material, related to environmental and climatic alteration, to the domestication of livestock and development of agriculture, to technology, to disease, and to variations in human immunity, reproduction, and physiology.

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.

About the Author
Pamela Kyle Crossley is Robert 1932 and Barbara Black Professor of History at Dartmouth College.
Features

  • An introduction to the relatively new discipline of global history
  • Written by a prominent American scholar, with a strong international reputation
  • 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 comprehensive clarification
  • Suitable for adoption on courses from 2nd year undergraduates onwards