Synopses & Reviews
History as a discipline faces a crisis of identity as Eurocentrism fades in a world where globalized visions compete to explain historical processes. Facing the challenge squarely, this volume_comprising specialists on Asia, Africa, and Latin America_explores the state of historical analysis in various world regions and appraises current views on what defines and challenges historical knowledge. It is widely accepted that Eurocentrism no longer seem acceptable in a world where others are reasserting their own notions of past and future. The postDWorld War II spatialities that guided both historical analysis and the division of labor in historical work are in the process of disappearing into more globalized visions. Constituencies left out of history in the past are making demands for the recognition of their historical presence. History as epistemology is under attack as a marker of Eurocentric modernity from non-historical ways of thinking, as well as from ideologies of postmodernism that deny to history its claims to truth. Indeed, the current situation in the field has been described by one distinguished historian as a Ocacophonous confusion.O The challenge historians face is how to imagine new ways of writing history that overcome this confusion without falling back upon ideological and methodological prejudices that reproduce the problems of the past in new guises. The contributors discuss how these challenges are voiced and met in their different areas of specialization. Unsurprising in a volume that addresses a variety of regions and issues that are not only technically historiographical but also deeply cultural and political, the authors differ in their appraisal of the challenges presented by globalization, postmodernism, or postcolonialism. Yet they are united in their recognition of the validity of historical ways of knowing and their reaffirmation of the importance of history in grasping contemporary cultural and political problems. It is because history is entangled in a Eurocentric modernity that in a postmodern world it provides the medium for articulating alternatives to Eurocentrism_and to history itself.
Synopsis
This ambitious volume provides a comparative perspective on the challenges facing the discipline of history as Eurocentrism fades as a lens for viewing the world. Exploring the state of history and the struggle over its ownership throughout the world, the authors address the issues of globalization, postmodernism, and postcolonialism that have been largely ignored by practicing historians despite their importance to cultural studies and their relevance to history. Engaging in a vigorous critique of Eurocentrism, the volume at the same time reaffirms the importance of historical ways of knowing.
Table of Contents
Is there history after Eurocentrism? / Arif Dirlik -- Archeologists and historians confront civilization, relativism, and poststructuralism in the late twentieth century / Thomas C. Patterson -- Historiography in southwest Asian and North African studies since Sa'id's Orientalism, 1978 / R.A. Abou-El-Haj -- Situating and rethinking subaltern studies for writing working class history / Vinay Bahl -- Reversals, ironies, hegemonies : notes on the contemporary historiography of modern China / Arif Dirlik -- Conflict and connection : rethinking colonial African history / Frederick Cooper -- The promise and dilemma of subaltern studies : perspectives from Latin American history / Florencia E. Mallon -- Is world history possible? : an inquiry / Roxann Prazniak -- Whither history? : encounters with historism, postmodernism, postcolonialism / Arif Dirlik.