World Histories from Below

Praise for the first edition: 'Most of the chapters in this fine collection would work very well in the undergraduate classroom … Each chapter chooses a small group of examples or moments to focus on, with brief mention of others, so students won't get buried in a mass of names and dates. The book as a whole could be assigned in thematic upper-level or graduate courses, both for its content and for the examples that the chapters provide about how to write comparative and world/global history on a specific topic in a research-paper length format. Because many of its examples are not ones often discussed, more advanced scholars of world history would gain by reading the book as well.' * World History Connected *
Antoinette Burton and Tony Ballantyne present a highly readable collection of essays that will challenge both scholars and students to rethink traditional approaches to world history ... Ambitious in scope but meticulous in detail, this collection functions equally well as a primer for undergraduate students or as a resource for advanced scholars seeking to draw wider transnational connections with their work ... The essays included in this volume present an impressively coherent narrative when read together but also function well as stand-alone pieces. * Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History *
“This collection of essays goes a long way toward “localizing” global history and at the same time “de-nationalizing” the study of the past. Whereas globalization has tended to be understood in terms of transnational movements of people, goods, and ideas, the contributors here examine these phenomena in local contexts. At the same time, they analyze how seemingly disparate developments in various parts of the world have also been shared across national boundaries, thus fostering a world of hybridity in which we live. The volume should serve as an excellent starting point for the understanding of the closely interconnected and at the same time intensely localized world that exists today.” * Akira Iriye, Charles Warren Professor of American History, Emeritus, Harvard University, USA *
“An essential introduction to the study of world/global history, this book builds upon the best of recent research to develop original and suggestive approaches that emphasize history from "the bottom up,” that is, the real-life struggles of ordinary people across the world to maintain and reshape their lives.” * Lynn Hunt, Distinguished Research Professor of History, University of California Los Angeles, USA *
This revised collection of essays proposes ways of understanding world histories by focusing on how common people mobilized, challenged, and negotiated power across time and place. World Histories From Below is filled with innovative scholarship on the Global South that provides convincing alternatives to national-colonial and Western narratives. * Sharon Block, Professor of History, University of California, Irvine, USA *
World Histories From Below charts new directions for students of world history. Its insistent focus on the perspective of the marginalized makes the narrative of world history newly available for the imagining of radical futures within and beyond the classroom. This is the book for teaching world history that we have been long awaiting. * Mrinalini Sinha, Alice Freeman Palmer Professor of History, University of Michigan, USA *
With welcome new material, the second edition of this superb essay collection offers an outstanding introduction to the approaches, challenges, and insights of World History. There's complementarity between the thematic chapters and contributors' analyses tease out the global patterns, complexities, and consequences of human interaction, from revolutionary protest to environmental change. * Martin Thomas, Professor of Imperial History, University of Exeter, UK *