Publications

Book
Gueye, Omar. In Press. Mai 1968 au Sénégal, Senghor face au mouvement syndical. Paris: Editions L’Harmattan.
McClure, Julia. Forthcoming. The Franciscan Invention of the New World. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Abstract

This book examines the story of the ‘discovery of America’ through the prism of the history of the Franciscans, a socio-religious movement with a unique doctrine of voluntary poverty. The Franciscans rapidly developed global dimensions, but their often paradoxical relationships with poverty and power offer an alternate account of global history. Through this lens, Julia McClure offers a deeper history of colonialism, not only by extending its chronology, but also by exploring the powerful role of ambivalence in the emergence of colonial regimes. Other topics discussed include the legal history of property, the complexity and politics of global knowledge networks, the early (and neglected) history of the Near Atlantic, and the transatlantic inquisition, mysticism, apocalypticism, and religious imaginations of place.

Maier, Charles S. 2016. Once within Borders: Territories of Power, Wealth, and Belonging. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Abstract

Throughout history, human societies have been organized preeminently as territories—politically bounded regions whose borders define the jurisdiction of laws and the movement of peoples. At a time when the technologies of globalization are eroding barriers to communication, transportation, and trade, Once Within Borders explores the fitful evolution of territorial organization as a worldwide practice of human societies. Master historian Charles S. Maier tracks the epochal changes that have defined territories over five centuries and draws attention to ideas and technologies that contribute to territoriality’s remarkable resilience.

Beckert, Sven, and Seth Rockman, ed. 2016. Slavery's Capitalism: A New History of American Economic Development. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. Abstract

Drawing on the expertise of sixteen scholars who are at the forefront of rewriting the history of American economic development, Slavery's Capitalism identifies slavery as the primary force driving key innovations in entrepreneurship, finance, accounting, management, and political economy that are too often attributed to the so-called free market. Approaching the study of slavery as the originating catalyst for the Industrial Revolution and modern capitalism casts new light on American credit markets, practices of offshore investment, and understandings of human capital. Rather than seeing slavery as outside the institutional structures of capitalism, the essayists recover slavery's importance to the American economic past and prompt enduring questions about the relationship of market freedom to human freedom.

Beckert, Sven. 2014. Empire of Cotton: A Global History. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. Abstract

The empire of cotton was, from the beginning, a fulcrum of constant global struggle between slaves and planters, merchants and statesmen, workers and factory owners. Sven Beckert makes clear how these forces ushered in the world of modern capitalism, including the vast wealth and disturbing inequalities that are with us today.
        In a remarkably brief period, European entrepreneurs and powerful politicians recast the world’s most significant manufacturing industry, combining imperial expansion and slave labor with new machines and wage workers to make and remake global capitalism. The result is a book as unsettling as it is enlightening: a book that brilliantly weaves together the story of cotton with how the present global world came to exist.

Book Chapter
Serels, Steven. 2016. ““Spinners, Weavers, Merchants and Wearers: The Twentieth Century Decline of the Sudanese Textile Industry.” .” The Road to Two Sudans, 160-176. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Press.
Conference Proceedings
2016. “Almanack.” "Scales of Global History." University of São Paulo, Brazil, 14. Abstract

The March 3-6, 2016 conference "Scales of Global History" was the first meeting of the Global History Network and included faculty and graduate students from all members. Papers from the conference have been collected in this issue of Almanack, a quarterly academic journal, specialized in the history of the national State building in Brazil and around the world, between the 18th and 19th centuries.

2015. “E.P. Thompson after Fifty Years. Spec. issue of Journal of Social History.” The Global E.P. Thompson: Reflections on The Making of the English Working Class after Fifty Years. Harvard University, Cambridge, MA.
2015. “International Review of Social History .” The Global E.P. Thompson: Reflections on The Making of the English Working Class after Fifty Years. Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 61, 1.
Journal Article
McClure, Julia. 2015. “The New Politics of the Middle Ages: A global middle ages for a global modernity .” History Compass 13 (11): 610-619. Abstract

This paper outlines the new politics of the Middle Ages in an age of ‘global modernity’, a term coined by Arif Dirlik to describe the appearance of ‘alternative’ or ‘multiple’ modernities.1 The politics of the Middle Ages has been recognised by a number of medieval and postcolonial scholars who have understood the role that the category of the Middle Ages has played in the historic construction of Western modernity and Western imperialism. This political use of the Middle Ages in constructing Western imperialism and modernity was underpinned by the colonial discourse identified by Johannes Fabian as the ‘denial of coevalness’. Yet, in an age of multiple modernities, we need to understand the changing political frontiers of multiple medievalisms. This paper indicates the particular way in which radical Islamist movements, especially ISIL, use and relate to the Islamic past and calls for further analysis of the new politics of the Middle Ages. This paper discusses the global turn and the shift in the politics of the Middle Ages, from the denial of coevalness to contemporaneity, and signposts problems and future directions that this shift indicates for medieval history.

Report
on History, Weatherhead Initiative Global. 2020. WIGH Newsletter 2019 (1:4). 14th ed.
wigh_newsletter_fall2019.pdf
on History, Weatherhead Initiative Global. 2018. WIGH Newsletter Fall 2018. Vol. 1, 1, 3.
wigh_newsletter_fall2018.pdf
on History, Weatherhead Initiative Global. 2017. WIGH Newsletter Fall 2017. Vol. 1, 1, 2. Abstract
The second issue of our annual newsletter summarizes the 2016-2017 year at WIGH, including our seminars, conferences, publications, and interviews with Fellows Shubhankita Ojha and Rachel Steely.
wighnewsletter_fall2017.pdf
on History, Weatherhead Initiative Global. 2016. WIGH Newsletter Fall 2016. Vol. 1, 1, 1. Abstract

The Inaugural WIGH Newsletter Fall 2016 summarizes a busy year of events, including the "Soccer as a Global Phenomenon" conference; the "Scales of Global History" conference in São Paulo, Brazil; the Global History seminar; interviews with affiliates Shaun Nichols and Marcelo Ferraro; and much more.

 

wighnewsletter_fall2016.pdf