“Dark Root” of Global History

Abstract

This is a historiographical inquire about a specific source of Global History. The aim of this article is to demonstrate the links between Oswald Spengler and Arnold Toynbee’s works and contemporary Global History. Both authors raised a holistic, non-State centric and pretending anti-Eurocentric approach of world history. Nevertheless, both remain as controversial writers for their anti-academic claims, particularly the cyclic vision of history and the intention to predict the future. Despite that, in the following years, several scholars had filtered the controversial elements of those authors to adapt them to scientific standards. Among authors such as Fernand Braudel, Raymond Aron, Martin Wight and Helio Jaguaribe, William McNeill stands out as a fundamental link to contemporary Global History.