Alessandro Stanziani, “Eurocentrism and the Politics of Global History”

Global history locates national histories in the context of broader processes, in which the West is not necessarily synonymous with progress. And yet it often suffers from the same Eurocentrism that plagues national history, accepting Western categories and values uncritically and largely ignoring non-English historiographies. Alessandro Stanziani examines these tensions and asks what global history is and ought to be. Drawing upon a wide array of sources, he historicizes global history writing from the sixteenth century onward, tracing the forces of revolution, globalization, totalitarianism, colonization, decolonization and the Cold War. By considering global history in the context of a longue durée, multipolar perspective, this book assesses the strengths and limits of the field, and clarifies what is at stake.

 

Palgrave MacMillan

2018

 

https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783319947396

 

– Offers an overview of the history of global history, examining the structural dynamics that have produced various approaches to history writing

– Written by a leading historian

– Draws upon a broad range of scholarship in English, French, German and Russian

 

Table of contents

Why We Need Global History

Connected Historiographies in Expanding Worlds: Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries

Inventing Modernity

The End of the Old Order: History, Nationalisms, and Totalitarianism

Global History in the Cold War and Decolonization

Conclusion: Global History in the Face of Globalization and the Return of Nationalisms

 

Alessandro Stanziani is Professor of Global History at EHESS and Senior Researcher at CNRS, France.