Globalising History
Globalising History
The global turn has rapidly gained ground within the historical discipline since the turn of the twenty-first century. A globalising approach recognises that 鈥榞lobal history鈥� is not so much about writing the history of the entire globe, but about seeking to understand how people, places, and societies are shaped through their connections and interactions with other regions of the world. Focusing on border-crossing processes and trans-regional patterns, global history has challenged the idea that the nation-state is the natural unit within which historical developments take place. There are many sub-fields that make use of global historical approaches, including economic history and the study of global commodities; the history of migration and slavery; the history of science and the environment; the history of empires and anti-imperialism; labour history; the history of ideas, and even (global) microhistory. This week focuses on the development of a global historical methodology over the last three decades, looks at different types of global history, and considers what global history as a field of research looks like in different parts of the world.
Essential readings
Stefanie G盲nger and J眉rgen Osterhammel (eds.), Rethinking Global History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2024), 鈥業ntroduction: Rethinking History, Globally鈥�, pp. 1-19.
Sven Beckert and Dominic Sachsenmaier (eds.), Global History, Globally: Research and Practice around the World (London: Bloomsbury, 2018), 鈥業ntroduction鈥�, pp. 1-18.
Yin Cao, 鈥榃hat is Global History Now in China?鈥�, Global Intellectual History (2025), firstview.
Further Reading
Adelman, Jeremy, 'What is Global History Now?鈥�, Aeon (2017). Online at
Belich, James, John Darwin, Margret Frentz, and Chris Wickham (eds.), The Prospect of Global History (Oxford: 2016).
Berg, Maxine (ed.), Writing the History of the Global: Challenges for the 21st Century (Oxford: 2013).
Conrad, Sebastian, What is Global History? (Princeton: 2016).
David, Thomas, Anne-Isabelle Richard, and Pierre Singarav茅lou, 鈥業s Global History Global? Convergences and Inequalities鈥�, Itinerario 47, no. 3 (2023): 365-376.
Davis, Natalie Zemon, 鈥楧ecentering History: Local Stories and Cultural Crossings in a Global World鈥�, History and Theory 50, no. 2 (2011): 188-202.
De Lima Grecco, Gabriela, and Sven Schuster, 鈥楧ecolonizing Global History? A Latin American Perspective鈥�, Journal of World History 31, no. 2 (2020): 425-466.
Drayton, Richard, and David Motadel, 鈥楧iscussion: The Future of Global History鈥�, Journal of Global History 13.1 (2018), pp. 1-21.
EUI Global History Seminar Group, 鈥楩or a Fair(er) Global History鈥�, Cromohs (2021). Online at
Fan, Xin, Global History in China (Singapore: Palgrave Macmillan, 2024).
G盲nger, Stefanie, 鈥楥ome a Long Way: The Global Historian鈥檚 Craft, Twenty Years On鈥�, Journal of Global History 21, no. 3 (2026): 1-14.
Ghobrial, John-Paul, 鈥楳oving Stories and What They Can Tell Us: Early Modern Mobility Between Microhistory and Global History鈥�, Past and Present 242, Supplement 14 (2019), pp. 243-280.
Hunt, Lynn, Writing History in the Global Era (New York: 2014).
Motadel, David (ed.), Globalizing Europe: A History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2025).
O鈥橞rien, Patrick, 鈥楬istoriographical Traditions and Modern Imperatives for the Restoration of Global History鈥�, The Journal of Global History 1.1 (2006), pp. 3-39.
Pomeranz, Kenneth, The Great Divergence: Europe, China, and the Making of the Modern World Economy (Princeton: 2000).
Riello, Giorgio, 鈥楾he 鈥淢aterial Turn鈥� in World and Global History鈥�, Journal of World History 33.2 (2022), 193-232.
Trivellato, Francesca, 鈥楾he Paradoxes of Global History鈥�, CROMOHS (2024),
Stanziani, Alessandro, Eurocentrism and the Politics of Global History (Cham: Palgrace Macmillan, 2018).
Wenzlhuemer, Roland, 鈥楧is:connectivity in Global History鈥�, in Manfred B. Steger, Roland Benedikter, Harald Pechlaner, and Ingrid Kofler (eds.), Globalization: Past, Present, Future (Oakland)
Seminar/Essay Questions
路Which methods and approaches are used in global historical research?
路How has global history influenced the wider historical discipline?
路What does it mean for your research to consider your topic in global perspective?
路What is the importance of place and positionality for the practice of global history?
Gobbets
"From its advent at the turn of the twenty-first century, global history has been a field in search of its soul." John-Paul Ghobrial, 'Introduction: Seeing the World Like a Micro-Historian', Past and Present 242, Issue Supplement 14 (2019), p. 1.