Hello,
I just joined the list and I am trying to gain some info regarding a
historiographical paper that I have to do. This is my first time on one of
these lists so I hope I'm not breaking any listserve taboos by
posting an undergrad inquiry.
I am a history / political studies student at the
University of Manitoba. I have to do a historiographical paper for a
historical methods class. As my focus has been world history and global
political economy I thought that world history would be an appropriate
topic. Allow me to explain ...
the purpose of the assignment is to write a historiographical paper on
a particular subject. As it is important not to ignore relevant
sources, the topic has to be narrowly defined so that the historiography
is manageable. Since simply doing a review of the writing of world
history is far too broad I have thought of a few ways of narrowing it
down.
First,
I would like to focus on world histories that offer a particular theory
for world historical development ie in their interpretation of world
history they see particular patterns, processes, dynamics, laws that have a
global application as opposed to histories that see world history as
nothing more than a collection of distinct local histories. I am also
looking for sources whose interpretation would also not be limited to a
particular era or region but would encompass all human history. I still
haven't figured out exactly how to say this. I hope it makes sense.
Some examples. I see Stavrianos's "Lifelines from our past" as relevant as he
divides history into three periods, each with its own dynamic. In each
epoch, the development of the next epoch becomes necessary as a result of
particular historical processes. (I hope I am representing his arguments
correctly. I have not read his book in over a year). Francis Fukuyama
may also be appropriate as he argues that human history culminates in the
triumph of liberal democracy.
first year world history texts, with their focus on the histories of
different regions and time periods, and with the absence of any
unifying/cohesive theory being offered, (a more "factual" approach to
world history) would be innappropriate. Gabriel Kolko's anatomy of a
war is also innappropriate because although it is a global history of
the vietnam war its analysis is specific to a particular period within
the twentieth century as a opposed to human history as a whole. I am
under the impression that if I choose sources that tackle human
history in its entirety, there will be fewer sources that I will have
to use.
Second,
I will only be looking at sources that are after 1989. The reason for
this is that I see the Cold War as a turning point and it
is an easy way to reduce the material that I will review. How do
academics from a vantage point in the post cold war world perceive all
prior human history? This distinction may not be a truly legitimate one
to make (I'm not in a position to know) but it is a useful one as it
reduces the material to review, and it is one I can make an argument
for.
As I do more reading and gain a better understanding of the approaches
that different world historians take I hope to be able to refine and
narrow down the focus of the paper further.
I have included a bibliography in this email. The bibliography I
have included is of sources that may be relevant to my topic. I have not
had a chance to go through them all and there are a few on the list that
I have already discarded.
The questions I would have for you are these,
1) does this topic sound feasible
2) do you have any suggestions about how I may go about doing this,
defining my topic more clearly, and narrowing the focus further
3) what sources should I be using that I have not included in my bibliography
thanks and sorry for the length,
Ryan Toews
Bibliography
Books
Braudel, Fernand, A History of Civilizations, 1993.
Chomsky, Noam, World Orders, Old and New, 1996.
Costello, Paul, World Historians and Their Goals: Twentieth Century
Answers to Modernism, 1993.
Chase Dunn, Christopher and Hall Thomas, Rise and Demise; Comparing WOrld
Systems. 1997
Frank, Andre Gunder, and Gills, Barry, The World System: Five hundred
years or Five Thousand
------ ReOrient 1998
Fukuyama, Francis, The End of History and the Last Man, 1992.
Gellner, Ernest, Plough, Sword, and Book: The Structure of Human
History, 1989.
Goudsblom, Johan, Jones, Eric, Mennell, Stephen, The Course of Human
History,
Economic Growth, Social Process and Civilization 1996
Gran, Peter, Beyond Eurocentrism: A new view of Modern World History, 1996
Hodgson, Marshall, Rethinking World History: Essays on Europe, Islam,
and World
History, 1993
Huntington, Samuel, The Clash Of Civilizations and the Making of a World
Order, 1996.
Lamb, H.H, Climate, History, and the Modern World, 1995
Matossin, Mary Kilbourne, Shaping World History, 1997.
Modelski, George From Leadership to Organization: the evolution of Global
Politics
McNeill, William A World History, 1998.
Prazniak Roxann, Dialogues across Civilization, sketches in world, essays
in world
History
Sanderson, Stephen, Civilizations and World Systems: Studying
World-Historical
Change, 1995
Snooks, Graeme Donald, The Dynamic Society:Exploring the Sources of
Global
Change, 1996
Spier, Fred, The structure of Big History
Stavrianos, Leften, Lifelines From Our Past, 1989.
Thomas, Hugh, World History: the story of mankind from prehistory to present
Wallerstein, Immanuel, The Modern World System
Articles
Amin, Sadir, "The ancient world system versus the modern capitalist world
system" in
Review, 14, 349-85, 1991
Benton, Lauren, "From the World-Systems Perspective to Institutional
World History:
Culture and Economy in Global Theory", in The Journal of World History,
1996, 9(2)
Burke, Peter, "New Reflections on World History", in Culture and History,
1989 (5):9-18
Frank, Andre Gunder, "A theoretical introduction to 5000 years of World
Systems
History", in Review, 13:155-248.
------- "A Plea for World Systems History", in Journal of World History,
1991 2(1): 1-28.
Geyer, Michael, and Bright, Charles, "World History in a Global Age" in
American
Historical Review, 1995 100(4): 1034-1060.
Green, William "Periodizing World History", in History and Theory, 1995
34(2): 99-111.
Hughes, Donald, "Ecology and Development as narrative Themes of World
History" in
Environmental History Review, 1995 19(1): 1-16.
Kirch, Patrick, "Microcosmic Histories: Island Perspectives on 'Global'
Change" in
American Anthropologist 1997 99(1), 30-42.
McNeill, William, "The Fall of Great Powers: An Historical Commentary", in
Review,
1994 17(2), 123-143.
-------- "The Changing Shape of World History", in History and
Theory, 1995 34(2): 8-
26.
-------- "World History and The Rise and Fall of the West" in The Journal
of World
History, 1998 9(2)
Muhlberger, Steven, and Paine, Phil, "Democracy's Place in World History"
in Journal of
World History, 1993 4(1): 23-45.
Munroe, Trevor, "The Midst, not the End of History" in Social and
Economic Studies,
1993 42(4): 241-262.
Neild, Keith, "Liberalism and History: Reflections on the Writing of
World Histories",
In Culture and History, 1989 (5): 65-92.
Rotenstreich, Nathan, "Can There Be an End to History", History and
Memory, 1990,
2(2): 136-142.
Spier, Frank "Regimes as Structuring Principle for Big History" WHA
annual
Conference, 1995.