World history, global history or transnational history (not to be confused with diplomatic or international history) is a field of historical study that emerged as a distinct academic field in the 1980s. It examines history from a global perspective. It is not to be confused with comparative history, which, like world history, deals with the history of multiple cultures and nations, but does not do so on a global scale.
World History looks for common patterns that emerge across all cultures. World historians use a thematic approach, with two major focal points: integration (how processes of world history have drawn people of the world together) and difference (how patterns of world history reveal the diversity of the human experience).
Read more about World History: Organization, Recent Themes, World Historians, Bibliography
Famous quotes containing the words world and/or history:
“Every child begins the world again, to some extent, and loves to stay outdoors, even in wet and cold. It plays house, as well as horse, having an instinct for it.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The history of the Victorian Age will never be written: we know too much about it.”
—Lytton Strachey (1880–1932)