World History

Philip Pomper is William F. Armstrong Professor of History at Wesleyan University. He is also Associate Editor of History and Theory. He has written primarily on the Russian revolutionary intelligentsia and on the uses of psychology in history. Richard H. Elphick is Professor of History at Wesleyan Univeristy. He has written on the origins of white dominance in Southern Africa and on the history of Liberalism and Christianity in the region. He is currently interested in missions and Christianity in world history.Richard T. Vann is Professor of History and letters at Wesleyan University. He is Senior Editor of History and Theory and has written on the history of family life in a world perspective.

• List of Contributors viiAcknowledgements ixIntroduction: The Theory and Practice of World History 1Philip PomperPart 1 Mapping the Field1 The Changing Shape of World History 21William H. McNeill2 Crossing Boundaries: Ecumenical, World, and Global History 41Bruce Mazlish3 Periodizing World History 53William A. GreenPart II Rethinking Structure, Agency, and Ideology4 The World-System Perspective in the Construction of Economic History 69Janet Lippman Abu-Lughod5 Bringing Ideas and Agency Back In: Representation and the Comparative Approach to World History 81Michael Adas6 World Histories and the Construction of Collective Identities 105S. N. EisenstadtPart II Unbinding Identities8 History’s Forgotten Doubles 159Ashis Nandy9 Identify in World History: A Postmodern Perspective 179Lewis D. WurgaftPart IV Charting Trajectories10 World History, Cultural Relativism, and the Global Future 217Theodore H. Von LaueNotes 235Index 272