Global History, Modernization, and the World-System Approach: A Critique
Author(s)
Lockard, Craig A.
Abstract
This essay is directed to historians, especially those unfamiliar with recent developments in the field of global history. It criticizes the way global and Third World history are studied and taught in the United States. The first section discusses the attention given by American college textbooks, courses, and history departments to global and third world history, and offers some observations on the nature of global history and the need for a universal approach. An analysis of the two main theoretical frameworks on global history is included. The author argues that the historical profession in the United States should devote more attention to the study of global history, a subject which could also benefit from some ideas developed by the world-system approach, which stresses the interrelationships between societies and the structure of the modern global community.
