2023 Academia Sinica Open House

Over the past two decades, the historical community has been gripped by a fever of “global history.” If one runs over to their local bookstore, they will invariably find a myriad of books related to the topic: a global history of salt, a global history of cod, a global history of cotton and the list goes on. But it is already challenging enough to understand the history of a country, a city, a neighborhood or even a street, and so can we really write history from a global perspective? And how does global history relate to our everyday lives? In this lecture, the presenter will draw from two examples, namely the history of religion and the history of medicine, to examine what historians attempt to achieve when claiming that they are writing a global history. Furthermore, the lecture will explore what new revelations global history approaches can offer us as well as any limitations in their use.