Sebastian Conrad

This book was more theoretical than I had expected. It certainly gives a good overview of the recent state of affairs in the Global History movement and related branches of historiography, which mainly focus on the connection of historical phenomena, viewed from a broader context. But at the same time it is primarily a thorough reflection on the strengths and weaknesses of that approach. Conrad defends Global History, and even narrows it down to research of structural integrative processes, but also underlines its pitfalls (like a to generalizing view, leaving no room for human agency or neglecting the hierarchy of powerrelations). The author offers a clever, very nuanced approach, with a provocative end: he predicts that global historiography as a systematic approach will eventually disappear, with which he actually means that it will become mainstream. See also my more elaborate review at my SenseofHistory account on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1927149580… (mehr)