Skip to main content
Presented to you through Paradigm Publishing Services

Bristol University Press

Visit our Partner Page See all our books
Chapter
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

3 Periodization in Global History: The Productive Power of Comparing

Abstract

This chapter develops a new perspective on fundamental problems of periodization and goes beyond postcolonial criticism. It argues that Eurocentrism is a symptom of a fundamental challenge in periodization as it relies on comparisons. It also elaborates that comparisons, even if they reject a 'telos' of history, depend on narrative objectives to distinguish important from less important historical movements and to identify directions, velocities, and standstills in these movements. The chapter demonstrates how history is cut up into epochs that show the heyday of Eurocentrism in nineteenth-century historicism up to the current global and world history writing based on comparing different velocities and drivers of change that vary in narrative objectives. It points out that Eurocentrism is caused not only by universalized time concepts, but also by justifications of periodization.

Abstract

This chapter develops a new perspective on fundamental problems of periodization and goes beyond postcolonial criticism. It argues that Eurocentrism is a symptom of a fundamental challenge in periodization as it relies on comparisons. It also elaborates that comparisons, even if they reject a 'telos' of history, depend on narrative objectives to distinguish important from less important historical movements and to identify directions, velocities, and standstills in these movements. The chapter demonstrates how history is cut up into epochs that show the heyday of Eurocentrism in nineteenth-century historicism up to the current global and world history writing based on comparing different velocities and drivers of change that vary in narrative objectives. It points out that Eurocentrism is caused not only by universalized time concepts, but also by justifications of periodization.

Chapters in this book

  1. Front Matter i
  2. Contents v
  3. List of Figures and Tables vii
  4. Notes on Contributors viii
  5. Acknowledgements xii
  6. Introduction: World Society and Its Histories – The Sociology and Global History of Global Social Change 1
  7. Every Epoch, Time Frame or Date that Is Solid Melts into Air. Does It? The Entanglements of Global History and World Society 25
  8. Periodization in Global History: The Productive Power of Comparing 43
  9. Communication, Differentiation and the Evolution of World Society 63
  10. Field Theory and Global Transformations in the Long Twentieth Century 81
  11. Organization(s) of the World 99
  12. Particularly Universal Encounters: Ethnographic Explorations into a Laboratory of World Society 117
  13. From the First Sino-Roman War (That Never Happened) to Modern International-cum-Imperial Relations: Observing International Politics from an Evolution Theory Perspective 139
  14. Nationalism as a Global Institution: A Historical-Sociological View 157
  15. States and Markets: A Global Historical Sociology of Capitalist Governance 177
  16. The Impact of Communications in Global History 195
  17. The ‘Long Twentieth Century’ and the Making of World Trade Law 211
  18. Third-Party Actors, Transparency and Global Military Affairs 227
  19. Technical Internationalism and Global Social Change: A Critical Look at the Historiography of the United Nations 243
  20. References 265
  21. Index 299
What in the World?
This chapter is in the book What in the World?
https://doi.org/10.56687/9781529213348-006

Chapters in this book

  1. Front Matter i
  2. Contents v
  3. List of Figures and Tables vii
  4. Notes on Contributors viii
  5. Acknowledgements xii
  6. Introduction: World Society and Its Histories – The Sociology and Global History of Global Social Change 1
  7. Every Epoch, Time Frame or Date that Is Solid Melts into Air. Does It? The Entanglements of Global History and World Society 25
  8. Periodization in Global History: The Productive Power of Comparing 43
  9. Communication, Differentiation and the Evolution of World Society 63
  10. Field Theory and Global Transformations in the Long Twentieth Century 81
  11. Organization(s) of the World 99
  12. Particularly Universal Encounters: Ethnographic Explorations into a Laboratory of World Society 117
  13. From the First Sino-Roman War (That Never Happened) to Modern International-cum-Imperial Relations: Observing International Politics from an Evolution Theory Perspective 139
  14. Nationalism as a Global Institution: A Historical-Sociological View 157
  15. States and Markets: A Global Historical Sociology of Capitalist Governance 177
  16. The Impact of Communications in Global History 195
  17. The ‘Long Twentieth Century’ and the Making of World Trade Law 211
  18. Third-Party Actors, Transparency and Global Military Affairs 227
  19. Technical Internationalism and Global Social Change: A Critical Look at the Historiography of the United Nations 243
  20. References 265
  21. Index 299
Downloaded on 30.4.2026 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.56687/9781529213348-006/html?lang=en
Scroll to top button