The Cambridge World History as a Result of the Generational Effort to Renew World History Writing

Abstract

The Cambridge World History (CWH) vol. VII. 1, edited by John R. McNeill from Georgetown University and Kenneth Pomeranz from the University of Chicago, is the first of two volumes covering the period since the mid-18th century and is divided into four parts. The first part, “Material matrices”, includes six chapters focusing on the ma-terial basis, not to say economic, of modern development, followed by the second part, “Population and disease”, with four chapters. The third part, “Politics”, focuses on many topics, dealt with in a single chapter each: international law, nationalism, imperialism, reactions to European expansion, colonization and its legacy, the history of genocides, and the history of communism and fascism. Finally, the last part, “World regions”, sketches in six chapters the development in different regions of the world, beginning with the Middle East, reaching the United States via East Asia, Latin America, and Africa, to end with the Pacific.

Biographical Note

Matthias Middell (SFB 1199 & Leipzig University, Germany)

Matthias Middell is a professor of cultural history at Leipzig University as well as a speaker of the SFB 1199 and director of the Global and European Studies Institute at Leipzig University. He studied history earning his PhD from Leipzig University with his research focusing on the French Revolution. Since 2013, he has served as the director of the Graduate School Global and Area Studies in Leipzig and is currently the head of the Erasmus Mundus Global Studies Consortium. He teaches regularly at partner universities and co-supervises PhD candidates with colleagues from France, South Africa, and Ethiopia. His current research interests include the history of the French Revolution from a global perspective, history of cultural transfers around the world, and the role of space in the understanding of the current world being the result of long-lasting global connections.