Rethinking World History
Essays on Europe, Islam and World History

This book rethinks the roles of Europe and Islamic civilisation in world history.

Marshall G. S. Hodgson (Author), Edmund Burke (Edited by)

9780521438445, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 28 May 1993

356 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 2 cm, 0.52 kg

"As today's world historians struggle with conceptual designs for courses and textbooks, they should pay attention to the lessons Hodgson taught....One delights in his piercing insights, his acerbic wit, and the amazing range of his thought...." Rose E. Dunn, Journal of World History

Is the history of the modern world the history of Europe writ large? Or is it possible to situate the history of modernity as a world historical process apart from its origins in Western Europe? In this posthumous collection of essays, Marshall G. S. Hodgson challenges adherents of both Eurocentrism and multiculturalism to rethink the place of Europe in world history. He argues that the line that connects Ancient Greeks to the Renaissance to modern times is an optical illusion, and that a global and Asia-centred history can better locate the European experience in the shared histories of humanity. Hodgson then shifts the historical focus and in a parallel move seeks to locate the history of Islamic civilisation in a world historical framework. In so doing he concludes that there is but one history - global history - and that all partial or privileged accounts must necessarily be resituated in a world historical context. The book also includes an introduction by the editor, Edmund Burke, contextualising Hodgson's work in world history and Islamic history.

Editor's preface
Introduction: Marshall G. S. Hodgson and world history Edmund Burke, III
Part I. Europe in a global context: 1. The interrelations of societies in history
2. In the center of the map: nations see themselves as the hub of history
3. World history and world outlook
4. The great Western Transmutation
5. Historical method in civilizational studies
6. On doing world history
Part II. Islam in a global context: 7. The role of Islam in world history
8. Cultural patterning in Islamdom and the Occident
9. The unity of later Islamic history
10. Modernity and the Islamic heritage
Part III. The discipline of world history: 11. The objectivity of large-scale historical inquiry: its peculiar limits and requirements
12. Conditions of historical comparison among ages and regions: the limitations of their validity
13. Interregional studies as integrating the historical disciplines: the practical implications of an interregional orientation for scholars and for the public
Conclusion: Islamic history as world history: Marshall G. S. Hodgson and The Venture of Islam, Edmund Burke, III.

Subject Areas: General & world history [HBG]