Amassing Global History

Abstract

This essay takes as its framework the competing definitions of ‘global’ as a concept through which we can reconsider the scope of global history. More specifically, it advocates for the adoption of truly global archives, such as the historical information embedded in language, by the field. Such a methodological move will generate historical scholarship that better situates the impact of oral societies in global history on their own terms. Cover image caption: Wooden Yokes used in coffles, Senegal, ca. 1789. Thomas Clarkson, Letters on the slave-trade, and the state of the natives in those parts of Africa […] contiguous to Fort St. Louis (London, 1791) plate 3, facing p. 37, detail. Copy in Library Company of Philadelphia. Under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International license.