A Global History of Modern Historiography

Citation

Iggers, G. G., Wang, Q. E., & Mukherjee, S. (2017). A Global History of Modern Historiography (2nd ed.). Routledge.

Chapter Summary

The book is a comparative history of historical writing from the mid-eighteenth century onward. It runs to about 390 pages in an introduction and eight chapters, followed by a glossary, suggested readings and an index. Its chapters are arranged chronologically, and each looks at Western historiography together with the traditions of the Middle East, India, East Asia and other regions, asking how Western models were adopted, adapted or resisted.

Introduction

Sets out the global and comparative perspective of the book, the first of its kind according to the publisher, and the questions it pursues about how historical writing changed in different societies under modernisation and globalisation.

Chapter 1: Historiographical Traditions in the World: A View of the Eighteenth Century

Surveys the historiographical traditions that existed in the world around the eighteenth century, before the spread of Western academic history. It is the baseline from which the later chapters measure change.

Chapter 2: The Advance of Nationalism and Nationalist History: The West, the Middle East, and India in the Nineteenth Century

Follows the rise of nationalist historical writing in the nineteenth century in Europe and in the Middle East and India.

Chapter 3: Academic History and the Shaping of Historical Profession: Transforming Historical Study in the Nineteenth Century West and East Asia

Turns to the professionalisation of history as an academic discipline, in the West and in East Asia.

Chapter 4: Historical Writings in the Shadow of Two World Wars: The Crisis of Historicism and Modern Historiography

Covers the period of the two world wars and the crisis of historicism, together with the emergence of new approaches in modern historiography.

Chapter 5: The Appeal of Nationalist History around the World: Historical Studies in the Middle East and Asia in the Twentieth Century

Returns to nationalist history in the twentieth century, focusing on the Middle East and Asia.

Chapter 6: New Challenges in the Postwar Period: From Social History to Postmodernism and Postcolonialism

Traces the postwar challenges to established historiography, from social history to postmodernist and postcolonial critiques.

Chapter 7: The Rise of Islamism and the Ebb of Marxism: Historical Writings in Late Twentieth Century Asia, the Middle East and the West

Examines late twentieth-century historical writing against the rise of Islamism and the decline of Marxism in Asia, the Middle East and the West.

Chapter 8: Historiography after the Cold War, 1990–2007: A Critical Retrospect

The closing chapter surveys historiography after the Cold War. According to the publisher, the second edition has updated sections on Latin American and African historiography, new coverage of Russian historical practice, and discussion of recent global history, environmental history, and feminist and gender history.

Key Concepts

Introduction and Chapter 1

• Global and comparative historiography: treating the historical traditions of different regions together rather than as offshoots of a Western model.
• Historiographical traditions: the pre-modern habits of writing history in different societies that the eighteenth-century survey describes.

Chapters 2–3

• Nationalist history: historical writing that serves national identity, followed in the West, the Middle East and India.
• Professionalisation of history: the establishment of academic history as a profession, in the West and in East Asia.

Chapters 4–5

• Historicism and its crisis: the nineteenth-century approach to history and the doubts it faced in the age of the world wars.

Chapters 6–8

• Social history, postmodernism, postcolonialism: the postwar challenges to established ways of writing history.
• Islamism and Marxism: two ideological currents whose rise and decline shaped late twentieth-century historical writing.
• Post-Cold War historiography: the period of new global, environmental, and gender and feminist approaches.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• Genuinely comparative scope. The publisher presents it as the first historiography to adopt a global and comparative perspective; the chapter titles pair Western developments with those of the Middle East, India, East Asia and elsewhere throughout, rather than adding other regions at the end.
• Clear chronological frame. Eight chapters cover roughly two and a half centuries in order, which makes it easy to place a historian or school in context.
• Updated for the second edition. The edition adds material on Latin America, Africa and Russia and on global, environmental and gender history, bringing the account to the early twenty-first century.
• Teaching apparatus. A glossary, suggested readings and online excerpts from key historiographical texts support its use in courses. Adam Budd of the University of Edinburgh, quoted by the publisher, describes it as the only truly global history of historical writing since the eighteenth century and as lucid in style.

Limitations

• Survey depth. A single volume of about 390 pages covering the whole world necessarily treats individual historians and traditions briefly; it is a map, not a replacement for primary readings or for specialised studies.
• Terminal date. The last chapter ends in 2007, so recent developments depend on later literature.
• Prior knowledge. Readers unfamiliar with modern world history and with the main Western schools of history will find the comparisons easier to follow with some background.

Where It Fits in the Course

In the historical methods list this is the one book that organises the subject geographically and over a long span. John Arnold's History: A Very Short Introduction and John Tosh's The Pursuit of History introduce what historians do and how they work with sources, and are the right books to read first. Marc Bloch's The Historian's Craft and E. H. Carr's What Is History? are short classic reflections by a single author on the practice of history; Hayden White's Metahistory is a demanding theoretical study of nineteenth-century European historical writing.

Iggers, Wang and Mukherjee provide the global and chronological background that these books leave aside: where nationalist history, professional history, social history and postcolonial criticism came from and how they developed outside Europe. It is therefore a good companion once the basics are in place and before or alongside Metahistory.

How to Use This Book

It is written for students of historiography, historical methods and global history, and for graduate students who need a reference map of the field. A first course in modern history and some familiarity with basic historical method are helpful.

A practical reading plan:

• Core: the Introduction and Chapters 1–3 for the framework and the nineteenth-century foundations; Chapters 4 and 6 for the twentieth-century crisis of historicism and the postwar challenges.
• By region: Chapters 2, 3, 5 and 7 look at the Middle East, India and East Asia (with the West in Chapters 2, 3 and 7), and can be read selectively according to the region of interest.
• Closing: Chapter 8 and the second edition's new material for current debates.
• Alongside: use the glossary for terms, the suggested readings to follow individual traditions, and the online excerpts to read some of the texts under discussion.