Global history and critiques of western perspectives

Abstract

The article discusses the parameters of the expanding field of global history and its wider methodological implications. In a first step the author outlines the rising interest in transcultural and global history that can be observed in many parts of the world. In this context different approaches to global history as well as alternative methodologies and periodizations are discussed. In a second step the author reflects upon the possibilities and challenges for global history in an age in which universalism and Eurocentrism have long come under attack from many different directions. The article discusses dependency theory and subaltern studies as two very different precursors to the current critiques of Eurocentrism. The impact and legacy of such schools, the author argues, cannot be ignored by global historians, even though they do not need to get directly involved in these academic discourses. The piece ends with scenarios for multipolar and pluralistic perspectives on the past.

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