More and more, global history matters, this book provides the basics and much more.

The present needs a history, or rather plural histories, which the past of all humankind. To better understand what has really happened between the different parts of a world divided by its borders is a vital necessity. And it can only be achieved from a broader perspective, one that global history aims to provide: an analysis that plays on temporal and geographical scales, breaking down disciplinary boundaries.
The essays in this book sketch out a number of themes (globalization, capitalism, modernity, trade, the environment, etc.), a history of our World, of our diverse pasts which have been meeting Otherwise, they would certainly have been different…

This book is a completely new edition of The History of the Global World fist published in 2012. In this one you’ll find many interviews and contributions of famous international historians as Timothy Brook, Jared Diamond, Jake Goody, Kyle Harper, Jane Burbank and Frédérik Cooper or Bruno Latour, Christian Grataloup and Patrick Boucheron for the French.

Contributors
Paul Ariès, Christopher A. Bayly, Jerry H. Bentley, Romain Bertrand, Jean-Joseph Boillot, Patrick Boucheron, Clément Broche, Timothy Brook, Jane Burbank, Vincent Capdepuy, Guillaume Carré, Frédérick Cooper, Jared Diamond, Laurent Dubois, François Gipouloux, Jack Goody, Christian Grataloup, Olivier Grenouilleau, Hélène Guiot, Pekka Hämäläinen, Kyle Harper, Bertrand Hirsch, Jean-Vincent Holeindre, Florian Hurard, Thierry Jobard, Nicolas Journet, Bruno Latour, Michel Lussault, Gabriel Martinez-Gros, John R. McNeill, Eric Paul Meyer, Jean-François Mouhot, Ludovic Orlando, Kenneth Pomeranz, Jean-Marie Pottier, Matthieu Roy, James C. Scott, Alessandro Stanziani, Immanuel Wallerstein, David Wengrow

TABLES OF CONTENTS

Introduction, Laurent Testot

“A long-term history of the world”, interview with Alessandro Stanziani

 

Rereading the history of the World

“Thinking history on a global scale”, interview with Christian Grataloup

What is global history by Sebastian Conrad, review by Mathieu Roy

The Eagle and the Dragon by Serge Gruzinski, review by Laurent Testot

 

Little-known pasts

“A new look at medieval Africa”, interview with Bertrand Hirsch

Africa, a continent of history, Vincent Capdepuy

China, matrix of the modern world, Timothy Brook,

 

The importance of time

“The revolution begins on the plate”, interview with Paul Ariès

Discovering other humanities, Laurent Testot

The Pacific Ocean, Hélène Guiot

 

Civilisation and the environment

“Climate crises have shaped history”, interview with Kyle Harper

Plants and microbes as actors in history, Jean-François Mouhot

The fever empire, John McNeill

 

The laboratory of empires

“The art of managing differences”, interview with Jane Burbank and Frederick Cooper

Why did the West win? Gabriel Martinez-Gros

Great Britain, United States, the liberal imperium, Jean-Vincent Holeindre

 

Modernity and globalisation

“Under the shoguns, a premodern Japan”, interview with Guillaume Carré

Such early globalisation, Jerry Bentley

When India was the workshop of the world, Éric Paul Meyer

 

Criticisms of Western supremacy

“Another history of humanity”, interview with David Wengrow

The hegemony of the European grand narrative, Jack Goody

The grand narrative of imperial encounters, Romain Bertrand

 

History on the margins

“Anarchism is all around us”, interview with James Scott

The forgotten power of the Comanches, Pekka Hämäläinen

A revolution in the heart of the Black Atlantic, Laurent Dubois

 

Classics of global history

“Three lessons from Papua”, interview with Jared Diamond

Globalisation before globalisation, Christopher Bayly

China and Europe, the great divergence, Kenneth Pomeranz

 

Contemporary reflections

“Palaeogenetics shows us that the past does not lend itself to Manichean simplifications”, Ludovic Orlando

“The end of a world”, interview with Immanuel Wallerstein

“Maritime Asia is one of the matrices of world history”, François Gipouloux

“Rethinking our modes of existence”, interview with Bruno Latour

“A new world to think about”, interview with Michel Lussault

A history of inequality. From the Stone Age to the 21st century, Walter Scheidel

“India and Africa, the renaissance”, interview with Jean-Joseph Boillot

History must be decentred, Olivier Grenouilleau

“What is history for? interview with Patrick Boucheron