In Marshall G. S. Hodgson’s article, The Interrelations of Societies in History, the idea of our egocentrism influencing our perception and education of history is more deeply explored and analyzed. The piece outlines how history primarily focuses on Western Civilization, although in reality the studies are usually only on European states. It argues that large scale history should be studied not as individual areas that are separate in nature, but through the interrelations throughout these societies in world history. In other words, that the achievements, declines, successes, and failures of all world societies through history have been connected to one another in some way, and it is impossible to understand a time period without understanding first the connections of societies. Hodgson makes this argument through two main points, first there is critiques of the current models of studying world history for their lack of interrelational studies. Second, he presents his own method of tracing large scale history by comparing societies involved in history. The Interrelations of Societies in History presents a theory on the faults with …show more content…
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
Looking at the title, King of the World, with its photograph of Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr./Muhammad Ali, I assumed it was a biography. It isn't. Jumping to my next conclusion I thought it was a book about the "sweet science;" it isn't. Okay, maybe it's a tell-all about the seamy side of the boxing 'business.' It's not.
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.
Ken Wolf, a professor of history at Murray Sate University and author of Personalities and Problems, wrote with the intent to illustrate the varied richness of human history over the past five centuries. He took various personalities such as adventurers, princes, political leaders, and writers and categorized them in a way for readers to draw lines between them to create a clearer view of world history for himself. Beginning each new chapter with a specific question about worldly concerns and disciplines allowed the readers to relate the topics to broader, more general scenarios of their cultures. Answering the questions in essay form gave examples of how certain cultures/ parts of the world dealt with those issues. The answers that pertained to the questions informed readers about many historical figures without drawing a time line for the course of history and simply reiterating information as in a textbook. Wolf's layout of the book created an interesting, clear, and informative study of world civilizations.
The Clash of Civilizations by Samuel P. Huntington interprets contemporary and projected conflicts, implying that the clash of civilizations will create the sustenance for all conflict to follow. He advocates that prior warfare and conflict advance from the work of monarchies, to the stuff of nation states, to the result of ideological differences. In conclusion, Huntington predicts that civilization divisions and misunderstandings will encourage all debates to come.
Ellis, Elisabeth Nor., Anthony Esler, and Burton Beers. "Chapter 12 Section 2." Prentice Hall World History. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2007.
John Lewis Gaddis, in his book, The Landscape of History, generates a strong argument for the historical method by bringing together the multiple standpoints in viewing history and the sciences. The issue of objective truth in history is addressed throughout Gaddis’s work. In general, historians learn to select the various events that they believe to be valid. Historians must face the fact that there is an “accurate” interpretation of the past ceases to exist because interpretation itself is based on the experience of the historian, in which people cannot observe directly (Gaddis 10). Historians can only view the past in a limited perspective, which generates subjectivity and bias, and claiming a piece of history to be “objective” is simplistic. Seeing the world in a multidimensiona...
...is, Elisabeth Gaynor., and Anthony Esler. World History Connections to Today. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1999. Print.
I share the view of Edward Said who responded to Huntington’s thesis in his 2001 article, “ The Clash of Ignorance”. He argued that Huntington’s categorization of the world’s fixed “civilizations” omits the dynamic interdependency and interaction of culture. Said (2004) also argues that the clash of civilizations thesis is an example of “ the purest individious racism, a sort of parody of Hitlerian science
Beck, Roger B., Linda Black, Larry S. Krieger, Phillip C. Naylor, and Dahia I. Shabaka. World History: Patterns of Interaction. Evanston, IL: McDougal Littell, 2009.
Tignor, R., Adelman, J., Brown, P., Elman, B. A., Liu, X., Pittman, H., & Shaw, B. D. (2011). Worlds together, worlds apart A history of the world: V. 1 (3rd ed., Vol. 1). New York: WW Norton &.
Ellis, Elizabeth Gaynor, and Anthony Esler. World History: The Modern Era. Boston: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2007. Print.
The patterns of living that the world witnesses today are greatly influenced by history. This is because of the fact that history plays an immense role in forming one’s future; the abundant interactions socially, economically, politically, result in repercussions that can hardly be unraveled. However, this does not in anyway mean that one cannot trace today’s state of affairs back to its roots. Tracing today’s occurrences back to their origin is possible due to the fact that the agents’ (nations) origins are known.
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.
Flory, Harriette, and Samuel Jenike. A World History: The Modern World. Volume 2. White Plains, NY: Longman, 1992. 42.
William McNeill’s thesis includes many different regions, all in which hold their own development of world historical views. His understanding as to the best approach came from historiographical traditions documented in even the recent sources we have observed recently. As a student in a world history class, it is important to note that McNeill’s thesis would be very important in discussing the very understanding of what his title implies, “The Changing Shape of World History,” with an emphasis on the four old world civilizations of the middle east, India, China and Europe.