In Global Perspectives on Global History: Theories and Approaches in a Connected World, Dominic Sachsenmaier discusses the social and institutional setting that has maintained and shaped world historical knowledge. Rather than a single “global history”, Sachsenmaier notes that this concept changes depending on power relations between nations, availability of resources to academic and professional historiography and the monopoly of certain languages in historical writing. Similar to how one cannot view a globe in its entirety, neither can “global history” encompass the history of the world. How does the United States’ version of global history look today? This paper examines one of the premier history programs at Yale University to understand …show more content…
The latest Yale History major maintains the previous senior essay, pre-Industrial and departmental seminar requirements but gives students a choice of two tracks: the Global Track and the Specialist Track. According to the history department, the Global Track “is designed for students seeking a broad understanding of major trends in the history of human societies throughout the world.” Students are required to take one course in five different geographic regions: The United States, Europe, Asia, Latin America and Middle East/Africa. The five regions illustrate Yale’s attempt to diversify the narrow track of history that signified major requirements. Now students in the Global track will touch on 5 major continents, rather than a majority history of the “West.” Even though the reforms created a wider course range, the track does not explain how these five geographic regions can give students a “well-rounded overview of historical themes and approaches.” There is no justification on why the Middle East and Africa are put in the same geographic region. A student can fulfill the Global track without taking a course in the Middle East by simply taking a course on Africa and vice versa. Yale’s attempts to have “broad understanding” and “well-rounded overviews” of history fail in this geographical regard. …show more content…
Yale’s history faculty consists of 72 professors that cover the previously mentioned five geographic regions and specialize in different branches ranging from cultural and intellectual history to gender and military history. Despite the diverse variety of topics and intellect, a closer look at the number of faculty in their respective geographic regions reveals an obviously disproportionate view of global history. Without counting visiting faculty and lecturers, one finds 28 faculty members specializing in the U.S. and 25 in Europe. More than half of Yale’s history faculty are concentrated in the “West” which questions how wide-ranging the “Global Track” actually is. Even Yale’s recent hires have not expanded the history faculty as the department is still suffering from the 2008 recession. The two most recent hires specialize in German and Chinese history, respectively, and a need for European specializations still overshadow current job openings. A 2010 study of the specializations of historians in the U.S. show modest declines in U.S. and European history (average -3.5 %) and a slight rise in Middle East and World History faculty (average +3%). Yet the skew in the number of Americanists and Europeanists compared to experts in other regions create a Western-centric view of global history. Even branches of
With a cultural background like Mike’s, survival in the American educational system is a difficult struggle at best. However, Jack helped fill in some of the critical cultural blanks. “He slowly and carefully built up our knowledge of Western intellectual history – with facts, with connections, with speculations” . And Jack served as more than simply a source of numb...
Lisa Lowe’s introduction on the word “globalization” was interesting as it reminded me of the readings and lectures regarding colonization of the United States. Globalization is described conditions that increased economic, social, and political interdependence among people. The article allows for comparisons to be made with eighteenth century America. For example, the arrival of English colonists led to a change in the North American landscape. This could also be described as an invasion of native land as colonists felt the land belonged to them. Similarly, Globalization also mentions American invasion in the context of the conflicts against Afghanistan and Iraq. In addition, both seventeenth and twentieth century America appear to some effect
“Why Western History Matters” is an essay adapted from a speech Donald Kagan delivered to the National Association of Scholars, and was reprinted in the December 28, 1994, issue of the Wall Street Journal. Throughout Kagan’s essay, he describes the essential need for the college course, Western History. He does so by examining older cultures and explaining why they were quintessential to the past and to our future development as a society. I strongly concur with Kagan’s standpoint of the necessity of history, and the realization of how exactly our flourishing society came about. History is a key constituent in determining who we are; for to determine who we are one must first know from whence they came. In the words of George Santayana, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”.
In no field other than politics does the justification for action often come from a noteworthy event and the true cause stays hidden behind the headlines. The United States’ transformation from a new state to a global superpower has been a methodical journey molded by international conditions (the global terrain for statecraft), the role of institutions and their programmed actions, and ultimately, the interests of actors (the protection of participants in making policy’s items and i...
Flory, Harriette, and Samuel Jenike. A World History: The Modern World. Volume 2. White Plains, NY: Longman, 1992. 42.
In his short article “World History as a Way of Thinking” Eric Lane Martin, “…argue[s] that the most important things the field of world history has to offer the researcher, teacher, student, and general public are the conceptual tools required for understanding complex global processes and problems.” Anyone who follows the evening news or shops at Wal-mart, has encountered the processes and problems Martin speaks of. Our modern society puts pressure on a variety of citizens to grapple with and attempt to understand issues on a scale that moves beyond the local and national. History has long been a tool utilized by scholars, politicians and citizens to help them put current day happenings into context. That context has allowed for a deeper understanding of the present day. In an era when the issues cross national and regional boundaries the need for a different scale of history has become apparent. World history has emerged as a relatively new discipline within academia that is attempting to provide the context for large-scale processes and problems. As the field has grown a variety of authors, some historians, some from other fields, have attempted to write a history of the world. With such a daunting task how can we define success? How can we analyze the history that provides a true global perspective on processes and problems we face? By taking Martin’s two key characteristics of world history, one, it is defined by the kinds of questions it asks and two, it is defined by the problem-solving techniques it uses, we can analyze texts purporting to be world history and access their utility in providing context for the global processes and problems we face today.
He argues that world history should not be viewed as separate, unconnected cultures of east and west, but rather that they were all connected in multitudes of ways and must be studied as such. Pointing out the inadequate ideal of separating the world into two sections which are not equal in geography, culture, population, or history itself, he instead poses a solution to the world history viewpoint: Studying the world through its interrelations between cultures and geographical locations. Hodgson’s proposed view of large scale history not only makes sense theoretically, but logically as it proves through the pages that the history or the world cannot simply be divided, but must be studied as a whole to be truly
Iggers opens the book by talking about a revolutionary way that the Western world was taught about history. Throughout the book he ascertains the changes that take place throughout historiography and the nature of history itself. He also examines prior historical notions and the way that historiography was altered after World War II. History morphed from previous antiquarian teachings into a deeper, more evaluated approach. Historians gained a more intimate relationship with postmodern ideas and began looking at history in an objective manner using contemporary discipline. Iggers studies the way postmodernism was changed by new social sciences which allowed more detail into cultural influences and the problems surrounding globalization theories. He also explains the birth of microhistory which replaced macrohistory.
“Those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it.” This famous quote from Edmund Burke is one that many of us are familiar with. In spite of this, many people disregard history, branding it as unimportant or irrelevant to modern-day situations. However, history is actually a quite important subject with a myriad of lessons to be learned for anybody to apply now and in the future. Additionally, history gives us much needed information about our past, keeping us from forgetting why our nations became the way they are. It allows us to draw parallels between modern events and past events to collect our best judgment and gives us the important knowledge of the origin of our modern world, giving extra credibility
For one, it is both inaccurate and unfruitful to promote a binary between Big History and micro-history. Surmising that any one category is more accessible to the public than others is a presumptuous, dangerous mentality. Further, big history neglects temporality. If history is, as Christian claims, the study of humankind’s past, then historians must not lose sight that a majority of humans survived day-to-day and neither knew nor cared about these grand themes at play. Above all, these articles all come from an Anglo-American perspective and carry consequential biases.
By looking back the events of historical globalization we are able to learn of the sources of these events and what lead up to the murder of thousands of people. Increasing our knowledge of the past allows us identify our society’s flaws and what could emerge as a result of them. Without doing so history is bound to repeat its legacy of assimilation, genocide, and ethnocentric
The English School is not widely know in the American International Relations typical field, maybe because of its roots are The British Committee and early works and lectures about the international society from Charles Manning and Martin Wight. According to Buzan the work of the British Committee is key because of the “diverse group that contained not only people from several academic disciplines but also practitioners from the world of diplomacy” (Buzan, 2001)
1. The importance of the study of world history to me personally as an American is very significant because I hope to find a career where I will work with many diverse people and I not only want to know them, but I want to have an understanding of where they came from in order to associate with them better. Another reason is that an American can be from any culture from around the world. Americans aren’t any certain race or religion, so we have to understand our fellow citizens just as they need to understand us.
All throughout history, we see this dichotomy between tradition and modernity. On one hand, we have tradition, the force living perpetually in the past and refusing to change. On the other hand, modernity leaves tradition behind in favor of progress. These two concepts, much like oil and water, dare to divide but coexist as a debatable founding solution. Not only are the themes Western ideas, but they have been present and are found in literature all around the world, from China to Africa.
Baylis, Smith and Patricia Owens. 2014. The globalization of World Politics: An introduction to international relations. London. Oxford University Press.