The Prospect of Global History

The Prospect of Global History takes a new approach to the study of global history, seeking to apply it, rather than advocate it. The volume seeks perspectives on history from East Asian and Islamic sources as well as European ones, and insists on depth in historical analysis. The Prospect of Global History will speak to those interested in medieval and ancient history as well as modern history. Chapters range from historical sociology to economic history, from medieval to modern times, from European expansion to constitutional history and from the United States across South Asia to China.

Contents: Part I: 1. Introduction/ James Belich, John Darwin, Chris Wickham. 2. Global history and historical sociology/Jurgen Osterhammel. 3. The economist and global history/Kevin O’Rourke. Part II: 4. Unnecessary dependences: illustrating circulation in pre-modern large-scale history/Nicholas Purcell. 5. A global middle ages?/Robert I. Moore. 6. The black death and European expansion/ James Belich. 7. The Qing Empire and early modern global history/Matthew W. Mosca. Part III: 8. Global history from an Islamic Angle/ Francis Robinson. 9. The real American empire/Anthony G. Hopkins. 10. Writing constitutions and writing world history/Linda Colley. 11. Afterword/John Darwin.