070461 VO Introduction to Global History (2007W)

This introductory lecture into Global History intends to be a workshop developing a methodology of Global History which combines epistemological considerations with methodical approaches. Within the history of historiography the term Global History has emerged only recently, therefore, in a broader sense, the approaches of universal history, world history and of development theories will also be discussed. Global History and intercultural comparisons require not only new questions and new combinations of topics but also specific reflections about theory and methodology in order to tackle with the complex problems and interdisciplinary needs. The broad overview of historiography will be introduced by a wide spectre of theoretical positions and approaches to World and Global History: the writing of universal history of the Enlightenment, national historiography, globalization and the critics of imperialism, the school of the Annales, World System Analysis, Eurocentrism and the European seizure of the world, the transition from the history of the expansion to the history of interaction, the relation between the local and the global perspective to the debate about Postcolonialism, Subaltern Histories and Connected Histories.
Didactis: classical lectures (by Kaller, KKomlosy, and guest speakers) and discussion rounds about key texts.
Preparatory reading:
Grandner Margarete ea (eds.), Globalisierung und Globalgeschichte, Wien 2005.