A Global History of History

by Daniel R. Woolf

A global history of historical writing, thought and the development of the historical discipline from the ancient world to the present. This is a definitive guide to human efforts to recover, understand and represent the past, bringing together different historical traditions and their social, economic, political and cultural contexts. Daniel Woolf offers clear definitions of different genres and forms of history and addresses key themes such as the interactions between West and East, the conflict of oral, pictographic, and written accounts of the past and the place of history in society and in politics. Numerous textual extracts and illustrations in every chapter capture the historical cultures of past civilizations and demonstrate the different forms that historical consciousness has taken around the world. The book offers unique insights into the interconnections between different historical cultures over 3000 years and relates the rise of history to key themes in world history.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, World History

568 pages, Paperback

First published February 17, 2011

About the author

Daniel Robert Woolf is an Anglo-Canadian historian. He is the Principal and Vice-Chancellor of Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, a position to which he was appointed in January 2009 and took up as of 1 September 2009. He was previously Professor, Department of History and Classics, at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, where he also served as Dean of the Faculty of Arts until April 2009. He was reappointed to a second term (to 2019) early in 2013.

Credit: Wikipedia

Reviews

[Reagan Kuennen · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5? Idk how to rate this tbh. This was one of the most dense books I have read. Definitely a lot of great information but to say this isn’t Eurocentric would be a lie. Idk how “global” I would actually consider this.

[Olivia Ramsey · Rating 3 out of 5]

i both loved and hated this book. it was times unbearably dense to the point of incomprehension (why so many water metaphors, woolf??), but i also feel so much closer to the discipline of history as a whole, and i certainly have a better grasp of global historiography than i did before. i feel like a SCHOLAR.

woolf’s book suffers because of its eurocentric framework. some of the most interesting parts of the book were when i was learning about historiography outside of europe. i’m not sure there will ever be a global history of history that is entirely “global,” which i feel is important to acknowledge while still criticizing woolf’s choices.

“Records and documents… only have significance insofar as living humans can reflect on them and, indeed, relive them… The dead have another life to live in us.” ugh, my heart. sometimes i just love history!

read for school, theories of history

[Johanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have a mixture of love and disappointment with this book. I had high hopes of S/N American indigenous historical practices when there was only about a section. There was large sections of Asian historical practices but often compared to whatever the heck Europeans were doing at the same time. Barely any mention of Africa, Oceania, and no Antarctica! What about the penguins and their history!!! Ugh. But seriously, not the worst textbook I have ever read but not the best. Very dense and was anyone counting how many water metaphors Woolf wrote???

[Owen · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/4

This book somewhat accomplishes what I think it sets out to do, give a global enough overview of historical writing and traditions across the world and how it led to modern notions and debates within the historical profession. Through many mirrors and streams (the main two metaphors employed incessantly through the book) most of this book is spent trying to understand conceptions of the past that are pretty alien to modern readers and with this Woolf is largely successful (although it can be intimidatingly dense at points). I think for an overview of European, Asian (largely just Chinese and Japanese), and Islamic historiography this book is a great resource. While there are sections covering the Americas, Africa, and South Asia they all sorta felt like exceptions or detours (especially with Africa) to a larger historical arc. Definitely a good resource but flawed

[Lindsey Meyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

the sources are great and it's definitely a history of history, but goddamn it is dense as a rock. bit difficult to follow, but when you do, it's a good collection of history. lots of words to look up when you turn each page, that's for sure

[Hillary Borders · Rating 1 out of 5]

Read for Historiography

[Ingeborg van Dijk · Rating 1 out of 5]

FINALLY I'M FREE!!!! This was impossible to get through. Just pure agony.

[Kristian · Rating 4 out of 5]

A small mammoth of a book about the, well, history of history. Impressive is the scope that Woolf has bravely taken by deciding to focus on literally everywhere in the globe and at all times. Not an easy task, but Woolf manages it better than one could imagine by tackling simultaneously the shifting currents of historiography in Europe since the classical Greece, in China since the Han, in Near East since the Assyrians, the Islamic world since its dawn, India, Korea, Japan, and the pre-Colombian and early-conquest America, including also the latest trends in postcolonial and gender history, and others. So... you know... lots. of. stuff.

But it stays compact, and is definitely readable, as long as you don't have to worry about remembering every single bit of information in the book. Because that would require some kind of alien brain structure that at least I do not possess. Especially interesting, in my opinion, is the chapter about the Americas before and directly after the conquest. Fascinating stuff. Florentine codex, here I come... eventually.

And the bibliography, man... if Woolf has read even a small part of the stuff mentioned, then I don't know how he has had time to do anything else, like, ever.

[Gail Hamilton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Professor Wolf covers an incredibly wide range of history in the very readable text. It is not light reading, but informative and thoughtful. He spends most of his time on early history writing, and only gets to the last hundred years in the last chapter. If you are interested in an in-depth coverage of the development of postmodernism or any other recent historical trend, then there are probably other books that are better suited. But if you want to look at history from a global perspective, this one is excellent.