Traditions and Encounters: The Changing Shape of World History

Taking as my inspiration the title of Jerry Bentley’s best-selling world history textbook, I will comment on the trajectory of world history research and teaching over the last several decades. As it grew from many roots, world history developed distinct traditions, including a de-emphasis of ‘civilizations’ and the nation, a concern with periodization, and a focus on interactions, large-scale processes, and political economy. These have continued, but world history has also changed as it has encountered a range of new approaches, not simply global and transnational history but also subaltern studies, histoire croisée, Transfergeschichte, Big History, Atlantic World history, borderlands histories, and many others.