World history or global history as a field of historical study examines history from a global perspective. It emerged centuries ago; some leading practitioners have included Voltaire (1694–1778), Hegel (1770–1831), Karl Marx (1818–1883), Oswald Spengler (1880–1936), and Arnold J. Toynbee (1889–1975). The field became much more active (in terms of university teaching, textbooks, scholarly journals, and academic associations) in the late 20th century.
It is not to be confused with comparative history, which, like world history, deals with the history of multiple cultures and nations, but not on a global scale. World historians use a thematic approach, with two major focal points: integration (how processes of world history have drawn people of the world together) and difference (how patterns of world history reveal the diversity of the human experience).J. Laurence Hare and Jack Wells, "Promising the World: Surveys, Curricula, and the Challenge of Global History," History Teacher, 48 (Feb. 2015) pp 371–88.
Periodisation World history in the Western tradition is commonly divided into three parts, viz. ancient, medieval, and modern time. The division between ancient and medieval periods is less sharp, or absent, in Arabic and Asian historiographies. A synoptic view of universal history led some scholars, beginning with Karl Jaspers, to distinguish the Axial Age as synchronous with "classical antiquity" in the Western tradition. Jaspers also proposed a more universal periodization—prehistory, history, and planetary history. All earlier periods belong to the second period (history), a relatively brief, transitory phase between two much longer periods.
Establishment and perimeters of the field
Jerry H. Bentley (2011) observed that "the term world history has never been a clear signifier with a stable referent", and that usage of the term overlaps with universal history, comparative history, global history, Big History, macro history, and transnational history, among others.Jerry H. Bentley, 'The Task of World History', in The Oxford Handbook of World History, ed. by Jerry H. Bentley (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011), pp. 1-14, (p. 1). Marnie Hughes-Warrington (2005) reasoned that "world history" is often mistaken to encompass the entire Earth, because works claiming to be "world histories" may have in practice a more limited scope, depending on the author's perspective: 'The "world" in world history (...) refers not to the earth in its entirety – both include and apart from human experience – but to the known and meaningful world of an individual or group.' David Christian (2010) stated that world-history scholarship had still been focused on the modern period, this being due to historians' preference for times when there was a great deal of documentary evidence; he contrasted this with the aim of universal history to include much longer timescales.
The advent of world history as a distinct academic field of study can be traced to the United States in the 1960s, but the pace quickened in the 1980s.Jerry H. Bentley, 'The Task of World History', in The Oxford Handbook of World History, ed. by Jerry H. Bentley (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011), pp. 1-14, (p. 2). A key step was the creation of the World History Association and graduate programs at a handful of American universities. Over the next decades, scholarly publications, professional and academic organizations, and graduate programs in World history proliferated. World history has often displaced Western Civilization in the required curricula of American high schools and universities, and is supported by new textbooks that take a world-history approach.
World history attempts to recognize and address two structures that have profoundly shaped professional history-writing: A tendency to use current nation-states to set the boundaries and agendas of studies of the past. A deep legacy of Eurocentric assumptions (found especially, but not only, in Western history-writing). Seeking to escape the nation-state, global history aims to transcend national boundaries by examining larger scales, unburdened by spatial limitations. Thus, World history tends to study networks, connections, and systems that cross traditional boundaries of historical study like linguistic, cultural, and national borders. World history is often concerned with exploring social dynamics that have led to large-scale changes in human society, such as industrialization and the spread of capitalism, and with analysing how these changes have affected different parts of the world. Like other branches of history-writing in the second half of the twentieth century, world history has a scope far beyond historians' traditional focus on politics, wars, and diplomacy, taking in a panoply of subjects like gender history, social history, cultural history, and environmental history.
Organizations The H-World website and online networksee H-World is used among some practitioners of world history, and allows discussions among scholars, announcements, syllabi, bibliographies, and book reviews. The International Society for the Comparative Study of Civilizations (ISCSC) approaches world history from the standpoint of comparative civilizations. Founded at a conference in 1961 in Salzburg, Austria, which was attended by Othmar Anderlie, Pitirim Sorokin, and Arnold J. Toynbee, this international association of scholars publishes a journal, Comparative Civilization Review. It hosts an annual meeting in cities worldwide. The Journal of Global History is a scholarly journal established in 2006 and is published by Cambridge University Press. The World History Association (WHA) was established in 1982, and is predominantly an American phenomenon. Since 1990, it publishes the Journal of World History oquarterlysee JWH Website
History
Pre-modern The study of world history, as distinct from national history, has existed in many cultures worldwide. However, early forms of world history were not truly global and were limited to only the regions known by the historian.
In Ancient China, Chinese world history, that of China and the surrounding people of East Asia was based on the dynastic cycle articulated by Sima Qian . Sima Qian's model is based on the Mandate of Heaven. Rulers rise when they unite China, only to be overthrown when their dynasty becomes corrupt.Sima Qian, Records of the Grand Historian: Q1in Dynasty (3rd ed. 1995) excerpt and text search ; Burton Watson, Ssu-ma Ch'ien: Grand Historian of China (1958) Each new dynasty begins virtuous and strong, but then decays, provoking the transfer of Heaven's mandate to a new ruler. The test of virtue in a new dynasty is success in being obeyed by China and neighboring barbarians. After 2000 years, Sima Qian's model still dominates scholarship, although the dynastic cycle is no longer used for modern Chinese history.S. Y. Teng, "Chinese Historiography in the Last Fifty Years," The Far Eastern Quarterly, Vol. 8, No. 2 (Feb. 1949), pp. 131–156 in JSTOR
In Ancient Greece, Herodotus (5th century BC), as the founder of Greek historiography,K.H. Waters, Herodotus the Historian (1985) presents discussions of the customs, geography, and history of Mediterranean peoples, particularly the Egyptians. His contemporary Thucydides rejected Herodotus's all-embracing approach to history, offering instead a more precise, sharply focused monograph, dealing not with vast empires over the centuries but with 27 years of war between Athens and Sparta. In Rome, the vast, patriotic history of Rome by Livy (59 BC – 17 AD) approximated Herodotean inclusiveness;Patrick G. Walsh, Livy: His Historical Aims and Methods (1961) Polybius () aspired to combine the logical rigor of Thucydides with the scope of Herodotus.Frank W. Walbank, A Historical Commentary on Polybius, (3 vols. 1957–82)
Rashīd al-Dīn Fadhl-allāh Hamadānī (1247–1318) was a Muslim physician from a Persian-speaking family, a polymathic writer, and historian, who wrote an enormous Islamic history, the Jami al-Tawarikh, in the Persian language, often considered a landmark in intercultural historiography and a key document on the Ilkhanids (13th and 14th century).Elliot, H. M. (Henry Miers), Sir; John Dowson. "10. Jámi'u-t Tawáríkh, of Rashid-al-Din". The History of India, as Told by Its Historians. The Muhammadan Period (Vol 3). London: Trübner & Co. https://archive.org/stream/cu31924073036737#page/n15/mode/2up. His encyclopedic knowledge of cultures from Mongolia to China to the Steppes of Central Eurasia to Persia, the Arabic-speaking lands, and Europe provides the most direct access to information on the late Mongol era. His descriptions also highlight how the Mongol Empire's emphasis on trade fostered cultural and religious exchange and intellectual ferment, facilitating the transmission of ideas from East to West and vice versa.
One Muslim scholar, Ibn Khaldun (1332–1409) broke with traditionalism and offered a model of historical change in Muqaddimah, an exposition of the methodology of scientific history. Ibn Khaldun focused on the reasons for the rise and fall of civilizations, arguing that change lies in the economic and social structures of society. His work was largely ignored in the Muslim world.Ibn Khaldun, The Muqaddimah: An Introduction to History ed. by N. J. Dawood, Bruce Lawrence, and Franz Rosenthal (2004) excerpt and text search
Early modern During the Renaissance in Europe, history was written about states or nations. The study of history changed during the Enlightenment and Romanticism. Voltaire described the history of certain ages that he considered important, rather than describing events in chronological order. History became an independent discipline. It was no longer called Philosophia Historiae but merely history (Historia). In the 18th century, Voltaire attempted to revolutionize the study of world history. First, Voltaire concluded that the traditional study of history was flawed. The Christian Church, one of the most powerful entities of his time, had presented a framework for the study of history. Voltaire, when writing History of Charles XII (1731) and The Age of Louis XIV (1751), instead focused on economics, politics, and culture. These aspects of history were mostly unexplored by his contemporaries and would each develop into their sections of world history. Above all else, Voltaire regarded truth as the most essential part of recording world history. Nationalism and religion only subtracted from objective truth, so Voltaire freed himself for their influence when he recorded history.
Giambattista Vico (1668–1744), an Italian, wrote Scienza Nuova seconda (The New Science) in 1725, which argued that history is the expression of human will and deeds. He thought that men are historical entities and that human nature changes over time. Each epoch should be seen as a whole in which all aspects of culture—art, religion, philosophy, politics, and economics—are interrelated (a point developed later by Oswald Spengler). Vico showed that myth, poetry, and art are entry points to discovering the true spirit of a culture. Vico outlined a conception of historical development in which great cultures, like Rome, undergo cycles of growth and decline. His ideas were out of fashion during the Enlightenment but influenced the Romantic historians after 1800.
A major theoretical foundation for world history was given by German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, who saw the modern Prussian state as the latest (though often confused with the highest) stage of world development.