Paradoxes of Global History

Abstract

Do we know what global history is? Since it is fair to say that we cannot agree on a definition, why do we institutionalise global history and argue over its pros and cons? This piece lays out and pries open some of the paradoxes that grip academic debates concerning global history today, at least in most of Western Europe and North America. It suggests that one way out of our current predicaments is to downgrade global history from the status of 'methodology' or even 'discipline' (as some have called it) to a perspective that has the potential of raising new questions. Doing so will allow us to focus on how we go about answering those questions, stressing the connections but also the differences between subject-matter and method in historical writing. Image caption: Giovanni Battista Piranesi, The Staircase with Trophies, from ‘Carceri d’invenzione’ (Imaginary Prisons) (ca. 1749–1750), New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1938, accession number 37.45.3(24), public domain, via https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/362676