Biography and (Global) Microhistory
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Mark Gamsa
Abstract
This article has two goals. It reflects on the recent developments and agenda of an approach to historical writing that is now becoming known by the name global microhistory, and it analyses the attention which this approach pays to individual lives. It also explores some of the challenges in writing the biography of a city alongside the life history of a person. The city is Harbin, a former Russian-managed railway hub in Manchuria, today a province capital in Northeast China. The person is Baron Roger Budberg (1867–1926), a physician of Baltic German origin who arrived in Harbin during the Russo-Japanese war and remained there until his death, leaving published works and unpublished correspondence in German and Russian. My forthcoming book about Budberg and Harbin challenges the distinction between writing “biography”, on the one hand, and “history”, on the other, while navigating between the “micro” and “macro” layers of historical enquiry.
© 2017 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Article
- Diversity and (In)equality in the Global Art World: Global Development and Structure of Field-Configuring Events
- Commentary
- The “Idea” of Universal History: What the Owl Heard, the Angel Saw, and the Idiot Said
- Reportage
- Once Again, They Have a Word for It: Greeks Talk about Our Global Age
- Documentation
- Biography and (Global) Microhistory
- Thinking Globally: Reassessing the Fields of Law, Politics and Economics in the US Academy
- Book Reviews
- Andrew Pettegree: The Invention of News: How the World Came to Know About Itself
- Caroline A. Jones: The Global Work of Art: World’s Fairs, Biennials, and the Aesthetics of Experience
- Stephen D. King: Grave New World: The End of Globalization, The Return of History
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Article
- Diversity and (In)equality in the Global Art World: Global Development and Structure of Field-Configuring Events
- Commentary
- The “Idea” of Universal History: What the Owl Heard, the Angel Saw, and the Idiot Said
- Reportage
- Once Again, They Have a Word for It: Greeks Talk about Our Global Age
- Documentation
- Biography and (Global) Microhistory
- Thinking Globally: Reassessing the Fields of Law, Politics and Economics in the US Academy
- Book Reviews
- Andrew Pettegree: The Invention of News: How the World Came to Know About Itself
- Caroline A. Jones: The Global Work of Art: World’s Fairs, Biennials, and the Aesthetics of Experience
- Stephen D. King: Grave New World: The End of Globalization, The Return of History
