The New World History - (California World History Library) by Ross E Dunn & Laura J Mitchell & Kerry Ward

About the Book

"The New World History is a comprehensive volume of essays selected to enrich world history teaching and scholarship in this rapidly expanding field. The forty-four articles in this book take stock of the history, evolving literature, and current trajectories of new world history. These essays, together with the editors' introductions to thematic chapters, encourage educators and students to reflect critically on the development of the field and to explore concepts, approaches, and insights valuable to their own work. The selections are organized in ten chapters that survey the history of the movement, the seminal ideas of founding thinkers and today's practitioners, changing concepts of world historical space and time, comparative methods, environmental history, the "big history" movement, globalization, debates over the meaning of Western power, and ongoing questions about the intellectual premises and assumptions that have shaped the field"--Provided by publisher.

Book Synopsis

The New World History is a comprehensive volume of essays selected to enrich world history teaching and scholarship in this rapidly expanding field. The forty-four articles in this book take stock of the history, evolving literature, and current trajectories of new world history. These essays, together with the editors' introductions to thematic chapters, encourage educators and students to reflect critically on the development of the field and to explore concepts, approaches, and insights valuable to their own work. The selections are organized in ten chapters that survey the history of the movement, the seminal ideas of founding thinkers and today's practitioners, changing concepts of world historical space and time, comparative methods, environmental history, the "big history" movement, globalization, debates over the meaning of Western power, and ongoing questions about the intellectual premises and assumptions that have shaped the field.

From the Back Cover

"Archive, GPS, orientation device--this collection is a godsend for anyone trying to navigate the intellectual ferment and terminological maze of 'world histories.' Mirroring the polycentricity and multivocality of the field itself, the editors and contributors model the limits and possibilities of global thinking as it applies to historical research and especially history teaching. Whether you are a first-time instructor or a scholar with deep roots in the field, there is something of value here for you."--Antoinette Burton, Director, Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities

"Dunn, Mitchell, and Ward have given teachers and scholars of world history a wonderful gift in gathering together these scholars and these essays, and then putting them in conversation with each other. The New World History is brilliantly structured and thoughtfully curated. More than just a marvelous and indispensable resource for beginning and experienced teachers of world history, it is a veritable seminar taught by leading scholars, past and present."--Bob Bain, University of Michigan, School of Education and Department of History

Review Quotes

"A valuable, sophisticated, and well-organized selection of papers written by many leading experts in the field... The New World History is a tour de force."-- "World History Connected"

About the Author

Ross E. Dunn is Professor Emeritus of History at San Diego State University, author of The Adventures of Ibn Battuta: A Muslim Traveler of the Fourteenth Century, and coauthor of Panorama: A World History.

Laura J. Mitchell is Associate Professor of History at the University of California, Irvine, author of Belongings: Property, Family, and Identity in Colonial South Africa, and coauthor of Panorama: A World History.

Kerry Ward is Associate Professor of History at Rice University and author of Networks of Empire: Forced Migration in the Dutch East India Company.