Dual Discovery, Dual Dialogue: Reflections on the Global Modernization of Historical Writing

From the late 18th century on, it seemed that the practice of historical writing began to enter a phase of modernization across the globe. There is no denial that this modernization had a good deal to do with the influence of modern Western historiography. What has been often overlooked however is that while historians outside Euro-America appeared enthusiastic about discovering the West, accepting/appropriating its ideas and ways of writing history, they simultaneously also embarked on another endeavor--discovering a new past in their own cultural tradition so that they could use it to accommodate and domesticate the Western influence. In such regions as East and South Asia as well as the Middle East, the modernization of historical writing did not lead to a total negation of the indigenous historiographic traditions. Rather, as the historians in those regions communicated with their counterparts in Euro-America, they also harked back to their own past traditions in hopes of finding a new bridge linking the past and present. Indeed, it was through this "dual dialogue" that those historiographic traditions were being modernized and transformed. Meanwhile, this revivalist endeavor also enriched and characterized the processes of modernizing historical writing on a global scale. Writing a global history of historiography needs to acknowledge, document and analyze the multiple-modernities of historical practice in our world.