"Big History" Old and New: Presuppositions, Limits, Alternatives.
In recent years David Christian and others have promoted "Big History" as an innovative approach to the study of the past. The present paper juxtaposes to Big History an old Big History, namely, the tradition of "universal history" that flourished in Europe from the mid-sixteenth century until well...
| Publicado en: | Journal of the Philosophy of History Vol. 9; no. 2; pp. 306 - 327 |
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| Formato: | Essay |
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Brill Academic Publishers
2015
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=109289024&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 109289024 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 1872261X 2SGR jtl: Journal of the Philosophy of History issn: 1872261X maglogo: Y pubinfo: dt: 2015 vid: 9 iid: 2 pid: 639 pub: Brill Academic Publishers artinfo: ui: 109289024 10.1163/18722636-12341305 ppf: 306 ppct: 21 formats: fmt: @attributes: type: P size: 943KB tig: atl: "Big History" Old and New: Presuppositions, Limits, Alternatives. aug: au: Megill, Allan affil: University of Virginia su: Christian, David Philosophy of history Christianity sug: subj: Christian, David Philosophy of history Christianity keyword: Big History David Armitage David Christian global history historiographical totalization Jean Bodin Jo Guldi large-scale history largestscale history modernization Philipp Melanchthon universal history world history ab: In recent years David Christian and others have promoted "Big History" as an innovative approach to the study of the past. The present paper juxtaposes to Big History an old Big History, namely, the tradition of "universal history" that flourished in Europe from the mid-sixteenth century until well into the nineteenth century. The claim to universality of works in that tradition depended on the assumed truth of Christianity, a fact that was fully acknowledged by the tradition's adherents. The claim of the new Big History to universality likewise depends on prior assumptions. Simply stated, in its various manifestations the "new" Big History is rooted either in a continuing theology, or in a form of materialism that is assumed to be determinative of human history, or in a somewhat contradictory amalgam of the two. The present paper suggests that "largest-scale history" as exemplified in the old and new Big Histories is less a contribution to historical knowledge than it is a narrativization of one or another worldview. Distinguishing between largest-scale history and history that is "merely" large-scale, the paper also suggests that a better approach to meeting the desire for large scale in historical writing is through more modest endeavors, such as large-scale comparative history, network and exchange history, thematic history, and history of modernization. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Essay src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Copyright of Journal of the Philosophy of History is the property of Brill Academic Publishers and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. item: Journal of the Philosophy of History holder: Brill Academic Publishers dt: @attributes: year: 2015 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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