Why Global History – Which Global History? A Critical Introduction

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Level: 
Master's
CEU credits: 
2
ECTS credits: 
4
Academic year: 
2009/2010
Semester: 
Fall
Start and end dates: 
7 Aug 2009
Co-hosting Unit(s) [if applicable]: 
Department of Gender Studies
Department of History
CEU Instructor(s): 
Susan Zimmermann
Learning Outcomes: 
This course aims at: • Developing students’ knowledge about major “building-blocks” of the universe of global historiography in past and present. • Developing students’ understanding of what it means in concrete terms to do global history, i.e. (a) why and how historical writing can and should transcend national and other boundaries, and (b) on which methods and materials have global historians drawn in which ways as they created their hisstories. • Enabling students to meaningfully relate to one key question: Which type(s) of global historiography do we promote, criticize, or even repudiate for what reasons? In order to achieve these purposes, the course is built on the following two components: • A critical introduction, discussion, and assessment of major traditions, concepts, perspectives, and implications of various “schools” and concepts in global history. • Joint reading of foundational texts conceptualizing and/or writing global/universal/world history.
Assessment : 
In line with the above description and goals the course requirements are designed as to encourage: • In depth involvement with the required reading and other material. • Critical exploration and discussion of complex and multi-layered assumptions and per¬spectives shaping global and transnational historical writings, and methodological as well as intellectual consequences for these global and transnational histories; these assumptions and consequences will be discussed in relation to the readings, the in¬structor’s presentations, and other material. Consequently – while no term paper is written for this class – the course requirements are the fol¬low¬ing: • Careful preparation for all classes by dealing with the required reading; a lecture intro¬ducing the theme of the unit to which the required reading relates, and an introduction to the reading, will provide guidance for the reading process. • Each student on three occasions introduces in class his/her reading of the required read¬ing, relating it to the instructor’s lecture given in the previ¬ous week and our devel¬oping knowledge about theories and histories of writing global history; in addition students are invited to consult additional sources of information and further literature, and, if they wish so, will receive individ¬ual help and guidance to do this. After further in depth discussion of the re¬quired reading in class, the student submits in writing a com¬bined literature-review-and-reaction paper based on her/his oral presentation and the discussion – i.e. each student submits altogether three literature-review-and-reac¬tion papers, 5 pages each. • Participation in all sessions is mandatory. The final grade will be calculated on the basis of: • Active participation in and beyond class, including the three introductory presen¬tations: 40%. • Three literature-review-and-reaction papers: 60%. • Students have to achieve a positive evaluation for both of these components.
Full description: 

PROGRAM AND REQUIRED READING:

NB: Please note that there may be a few changes regarding the required reading

Unit I - 21 September

General introduction
Required reading (to be read for the following meeting):
Jerry H. Bentley, Shapes of World History in Twentieth-Century Scholarship, Washington 2003
Marnie Huges-Warrington, Shapes. In: M. Huges-Warrington (ed.), World Histories, Houndsmills 2005, (extracts) 118-129.


I. Why global history – which global history? Critical approaches


Unit II - 28 September

Why global history – which global history?
Required reading (to be read for the following meeting):
Heather Sutherland, The Problematic Authority of (World) History. In: Journal of World History 18 (2007) 4, 491-522.

Unit III - 5 October
Demarginalizing “regional traditions:” Eastern Europe and India as examples
Required reading (to be read for the following meeting):
Thomas M. Bohn, Writing World History in Tsarist Russia and in the Soviet Union. In: Benedikt Stuchey, Eckhardt Fuchs (eds), Writing World History 1800 – 2000, Oxford 2003, 197-212.
Vinay Lal, Provincializing the West: World History from the Perspective of Indian History. In: Benedikt Stuchey, Eckhardt Fuchs (eds), Writing World History 1800 – 2000, Oxford 2003, 271-289.

Unit IV - 13 October
Why global gender history – which global gender history?
Required reading (to be read for the following meeting):
Judit P. Zinser, Gender. In: Marnie Huges-Warrington (ed.), World Histories, Houndsmills 2005, 189-214.
Mrinalini Sinha, Complicating the Categories of “Western” and “Non-Western” Feminisms. In: The Social Justice Group (ed.), Is Academic Feminism Dead? Theory in Practice, New York University Press 2000, 168-186.

Unit V - 20 October
Why global labour history – which global labour history?
Required reading (to be read for the following meeting):
Marcel van der Linden, Globalizing Labour Historiography. The IISH Approach, IISH, Amsterdam, 2002 (http://www.iisg.nl/publications/globlab.pdf)
Alessandro Stanziani, Serfs, Slaves, or Wage Earners? The Legal Status of Labour in Russia from a Comparative Perspective, from the Sixteenth to the Nineteenth Century. In: Journal of Global History 3 (2008) 2, 183 – 202.


II. “Masterly classics” in context – a critical reading of selected traditions

Unit VI - 27 October
Ibn Kaldhūn
Required reading (to be read for the following meeting):
Ibn Kaldhūn, An Introduction to History. The Muqaddimah, London 1967 (short extracts)
Aziz Al-Azmeh, Ibn Kaldhūn. An Essay in Reinterpretation [1982], Budapest 2003 (extracts)

Unit VII - 2 November
Voltaire and the varieties of universal history
Required reading (to be read for the following meeting):
Voltaire: Candide or Optimism, West Drayton etc. 1947 (extracts)

Unit VIII - 9 November
From Hegel to Marx: Europe and the world in 19th century historical thinking
Required reading (to be read for the following meeting):
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Philosophy of History, [German original 1837], “Introduction” (extracts), New York 1956

Unit IX - 16 November
W.E.B. Du Bois and the varieties of Black visions of history beyond (and underneath) the nation state
Required reading (to be read for the following meeting):
W.E.B. Du Bois, The Soul of White Folks [1920] and The Suppression of the African Slave-Trade [1896] (extracts), both reprinted in W.E.B. Du Bois, Writings, New York 1986

Unit X - 23 November
William McNeill and other 20th century attempts of writing world histories (from the West)
Required reading (to be read for the following meeting):
William McNeill, The Rise of the West: A History of the Human Community, Chicago 1963 (extracts)
 
Unit XI - 30 November
Immanuel Wallerstein and the varieties of a critical reading of the global in global capitalism
Required reading (to be read for the following meeting):
Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Enzo Faletto, Dependency and Development in Latin America, Berkeley 1979 (extracts)

Unit XII - 7 December
Summary discussion: histories and conceptualizations of writing the global