Global History and Micro History: A GlobalMicro Pathway
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Warwick
Department Name: History
Abstract
Two areas and approaches to historical writing which captured imaginations during the later twentieth and early twenty-first centuries were microhistory and global history. Both have generated wide interest among historians and the general public. Microhistory connected with cultural history became a popular historical methodology from the later 1970s, especially in France and Italy. Inspired by anthropological approaches, microhistorians reduced the scale of their analyses as a way of testing the large-scale paradigms that had come to influence the study of the past, for example Marxism, modernization theory, and the quantitative focus of certain approaches derived from the social sciences. It gained a wide public reception around the film 'The Return of Martin Guerre' and Natalie Zemon Davis's historical contribution to this.
Global history, by contrast, developed from the late 1990s out of comparative economic history, especially of China, South Asia and Europe in a debate on 'divergent' paths of economic development. It looked for broad frameworks in which to situate events, peoples and movements. It also sought to move beyond the specialism of area studies and the political and cultural boundaries of 'the nation'. It sought to make this comparative and connective history across the great regions of the world central to the subjects and methods of historians and museums. Global history has become the focus of new research centres as well as journals and MA programmes in several parts of the world.
A number of microhistorians now seek to engage in the histories of places, events and individuals in a way that also captures the history of global connections as brought to life by a new generation of global historians. Some global history recently has gone the way of 'big data' collection, wide structures and geographies; the people and the events are getting lost in more general macro narratives. There are many scholars who see themselves as global historians whose work is rooted in archivally-based research into the histories of places, events and individuals.
The AHRC GlobalMicrohistory network will bring these groups together to discuss the question, 'Can there be a global micro history?' This timely network will address major problems and opportunities arising in our writing about our past and in its display in museums
What are the questions, methodologies and writing challenges that will bring these traditions of historical writing together? These questions include the following:
Can the written and printed evidence gathered in archives and texts be connected with the evidence of material culture that we find in museum collections and archaeological remains so as to give life to a new initiative in globalmicro history?
What is the role of locality and how do we write about it within a global history framework?
What are the key social-cultural and economic-political questions connecting individual microhistories?
How do we connect the large histories of empires and courts with those of individual families and political events?
Is information and communication as conveyed in correspondence, ambassadorial, mission and mercantile reports and travel writing a key connector of archival microanalysis and the wider themes of global history?
What new perspectives on locality, empire, and information can we bring through the histories and analysis of objects in our museum collections?
This network will be led by PI, Maxine Berg (Global History and Culture Centre, University of Warwick) and Co-I, John-Paul Ghobrial (History Faculty, Oxford). The network will also involve Jorge Flores (Dept. of History and Civilization, European University Institute) and the Research Dept. and the Early Modern European History Gallery of the Victoria and Albert Museum to investigate and debate these issues. The result will be a pathway to a new field of Global Microhistory.
Global history, by contrast, developed from the late 1990s out of comparative economic history, especially of China, South Asia and Europe in a debate on 'divergent' paths of economic development. It looked for broad frameworks in which to situate events, peoples and movements. It also sought to move beyond the specialism of area studies and the political and cultural boundaries of 'the nation'. It sought to make this comparative and connective history across the great regions of the world central to the subjects and methods of historians and museums. Global history has become the focus of new research centres as well as journals and MA programmes in several parts of the world.
A number of microhistorians now seek to engage in the histories of places, events and individuals in a way that also captures the history of global connections as brought to life by a new generation of global historians. Some global history recently has gone the way of 'big data' collection, wide structures and geographies; the people and the events are getting lost in more general macro narratives. There are many scholars who see themselves as global historians whose work is rooted in archivally-based research into the histories of places, events and individuals.
The AHRC GlobalMicrohistory network will bring these groups together to discuss the question, 'Can there be a global micro history?' This timely network will address major problems and opportunities arising in our writing about our past and in its display in museums
What are the questions, methodologies and writing challenges that will bring these traditions of historical writing together? These questions include the following:
Can the written and printed evidence gathered in archives and texts be connected with the evidence of material culture that we find in museum collections and archaeological remains so as to give life to a new initiative in globalmicro history?
What is the role of locality and how do we write about it within a global history framework?
What are the key social-cultural and economic-political questions connecting individual microhistories?
How do we connect the large histories of empires and courts with those of individual families and political events?
Is information and communication as conveyed in correspondence, ambassadorial, mission and mercantile reports and travel writing a key connector of archival microanalysis and the wider themes of global history?
What new perspectives on locality, empire, and information can we bring through the histories and analysis of objects in our museum collections?
This network will be led by PI, Maxine Berg (Global History and Culture Centre, University of Warwick) and Co-I, John-Paul Ghobrial (History Faculty, Oxford). The network will also involve Jorge Flores (Dept. of History and Civilization, European University Institute) and the Research Dept. and the Early Modern European History Gallery of the Victoria and Albert Museum to investigate and debate these issues. The result will be a pathway to a new field of Global Microhistory.
Planned Impact
A Network about concepts and ways of writing history can have wide impact on society and culture by reconfiguring the way public and policymakers engage with their past.
Archivally-based histories of individuals and events are at the core of historical writing. The network discussions will broaden the social constituencies and parts of the world considered by historians.
The network will engage a wider public and museum practitioners in accessible histories and narratives that connect with new concepts of our current global condition.
Salon discussion will be non-hierarchical discussion in a museum space, and open to the general public, outside the formal academic structures of the University and Conference venues.
Academic researchers and museum practitioners will have the opportunity of dialogue and debate in opening pathways to new methodologies and concepts in historical writing and presentation.
Salon events held during opening hours of the Museum will provide a forum open to both observation and participation by the general public.
This public access to historical debate within a Museum space will engage the public in the ideas, critiques, methods and practices of historians and curators as these develop.
A functioning Salon discussion set within the object displays of the Early Modern Gallery will engage public audiences and participants in the dynamic of newly developing historical discourses connected with the types of objects in the Gallery.
Mixing audiences and participants will provide opportunities for new perspectives and questions for both groups.
The Salon provides a forum where the public can take part in the making of those historical discourses.
A website will provide a full written summary and blog of each Salon event. There will be opportunities for continued responses on the website.
There will be podcasts of each event on the website to allow for continued on-line debates.
Archivally-based histories of individuals and events are at the core of historical writing. The network discussions will broaden the social constituencies and parts of the world considered by historians.
The network will engage a wider public and museum practitioners in accessible histories and narratives that connect with new concepts of our current global condition.
Salon discussion will be non-hierarchical discussion in a museum space, and open to the general public, outside the formal academic structures of the University and Conference venues.
Academic researchers and museum practitioners will have the opportunity of dialogue and debate in opening pathways to new methodologies and concepts in historical writing and presentation.
Salon events held during opening hours of the Museum will provide a forum open to both observation and participation by the general public.
This public access to historical debate within a Museum space will engage the public in the ideas, critiques, methods and practices of historians and curators as these develop.
A functioning Salon discussion set within the object displays of the Early Modern Gallery will engage public audiences and participants in the dynamic of newly developing historical discourses connected with the types of objects in the Gallery.
Mixing audiences and participants will provide opportunities for new perspectives and questions for both groups.
The Salon provides a forum where the public can take part in the making of those historical discourses.
A website will provide a full written summary and blog of each Salon event. There will be opportunities for continued responses on the website.
There will be podcasts of each event on the website to allow for continued on-line debates.
Publications
Berg M
(2021)
'Slavery, Atlantic trade and skills: a response to Mokyr's 'Holy Land of Industrialism'
in Journal of the British Academy
John-Paul Ghobrial
(2019)
Global History and Microhistory: Past and Present Supplement 14 2019
John-Paul Ghobrial
(2019)
Global History and Microhistory: Past and Present Supplement 14 2019
John-Paul Ghobrial
(2019)
Global History and Microhistory: Past and Present Supplement 14 2019
Maxine Berg
(2021)
'Sweet Industriousness in the Eighteenth Century'
in Materialized Histories: Materielle Kultur und digitale Forschung
Maxine Berg
(2021)
'Commodity frontiers: concepts and history'
in Journal of Global History
Maxine Berg
(2019)
Global History and Microhistory: Past and Present Supplement 14 2019
Description | The impact Salon events engaged curators, academics and the general public in viewing the Gallery collections and historical understanding of trade and crafts in a new way. Dialogue among curators, the public and academics demonstrated the importance of using Gallery objects in microhistorical writing, and exposed to curators and the public a new framework of global microhistory - using the small to explain the large. The debating panel in 2019 engaged a new generation of postgraduates and the general public. |
Exploitation Route | The Network discussion of new ways of writing global microhistory will have a wide impact on society and culture by reconfiguring the way public and policymakers engage with their past. Network discussions will broaden the social constituencies and parts of the world considered by historians. The activities of the Network thus far have taken up the study of wider parts of the world. For this to be taken forward there should be an engagement with historians from China, India, Japan, and Latin America. Museum practitioners in the UK could engage with museums in other parts of the world in developing these new frameworks. |
Sectors | Education,Environment,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections,Other |
URL | https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/history/ghcc/research/globalmicrohistory |
Description | Leverhulme Emeritus Research Fellowship |
Amount | £18,888 (GBP) |
Organisation | The Leverhulme Trust |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 01/2022 |
End | 12/2023 |
Description | Spaces and Localities in a Global History of Nootka Sound 1774-1794 |
Amount | £6,540 (GBP) |
Funding ID | SRG19\191691 |
Organisation | The British Academy |
Sector | Academic/University |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 10/2019 |
End | 10/2021 |
Description | Conference 1 - University of Warwick - Scales, Spaces and Contexts in Histories of the Local and the Global - 17th-19th of May, 2018 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | This was a major international conference placing this new framework of 'Global Microhistory' centrally in the historical disciplines. Participants included leading historians from Princeton, Yale, Columbia, Germany, Switzerland, France and Italy as well as the UK. A two-day conference reaching c. 100 participants including many students and postdoctoral fellows. A series of major papers was presented, and will be published in a Special Issue of a major journal, expected late 2019. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
URL | https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/history/ghcc/blog/reflections_on_the/ |
Description | Conference 2 - European University Institute - Empire; dynasties, courts ; legal codes and religion - 13-14th September, 2018 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | This was a second major international conference for the Network. This included major historians from the U.S., Germany, Switzerland, France, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands and the U.K. There were also many participants among postgraduates and postdoctoral fellows studying at the EUI. This conference provided a new perspective and new methodology on the study of courts and religion in the early modern period. The conference changed viewpoints and understanding. Papers from this conference will be published in a Special Issue of a journal expected in late 2019. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | Global Microhistory Book Panel |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Global Microhistory debating panel |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | V&A - Public Salon Session Objects of Trade; labour and craft 19th October, 2018 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | This Salon event was held in the V&A Friday Late events sessions. It was advertised on the V&A events website, and open to all visitors passing through the Europe 1500-1800 Gallery. An expert led a tour of specific objects of trade and craft in the Gallery, and this was followed by a discussion in the dedicated meeting space of the Gallery, the Globe. All passing visitors were also invited to take part in this discussion. There was a core group of 20 early career curators, academic postdoctoral fellows and PhD students along with some senior members of the Network group. The discussion was recorded, and placed on the website, and a blog reporting on the event was also posted on the website. The impact of the event was to bring the new theoretical framework of global microhistory into discussions of objects in the V&A Galleries; it was also to bring key objects in the gallery to the attention of historians pursuing this new historical framework. It achieved this interaction of curators and academics, and conveyed this in an open discussion to a broader public touring the Gallery at the time. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
URL | https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/history/ghcc/blog/ |