A thought occurred to me, a striking and unsuspectingly creeping notion, about my subject. This idea had begun to hit the edges of my mind when, as a part of my research into Rapa Nui, I routinely looked at modern
Microhistory and Global History
One attraction of microhistory, as mentioned by Tonio Andrade is the way its narrative element is engaging for readers. This would certainly be useful for global history where one concern is the worry of finding a wide readership for works
Histories of scale – Global history through micro perspectives
The first thing that came to mind when doing this week’s readings was the idea of scale. When thinking about microhistory versus global history, they seemed to me like opposite ends of a scale – one put a magnifying glass
Contemplations and a Brief History of Rapa Nui
I struggled a bit to come up with a blog post for this week as I was torn between two very different fundamental ideas. On the one hand I wished to write and put more words down into pen about my
First thoughts on project
This week’s readings have triggered a lot of questions and reflexions, which I look forwards to discussing tomorrow. I have however decided to dedicate this post to my first thoughts on my project, which has taken a significant step forwards
Microhistory Bacteriologists, Doctors, and Diseases
Katharina Kreuder-Sonnen’s “From Transnationalism to Olympic Internationalism” was my favorite text for this week not only because of its micro-historical approach but also because of my personal connections with the content. When I first read the abstract, and then read
Thoughts on Andrade’s ‘Global Microhistory’
I found the Andrade article ‘Toward a Global Microhistory’ particularly thought-provoking. His narratival and biographical approach to recounting the Dutch-Chinese conflict of 1661 in Taiwan made this article a very enjoyable and casual read. Andrade begins with introducing a major
(Global) Microhistory and Project Thoughts
My previous engagement with microhistory was primarily in HI2001 when looking at The Return of Martin Guerre by Natalie Zemon Davis, which I thoroughly enjoyed. The readings this week were no different. I found Andrade’s article particularly engaging and enjoyable,
A discussion on narrative
In my mind, a key purpose of these blogs is to engage with the historiographical debates which have relevance to transnational methodologies, even tangential relevance. It is for this reason which I have decided to focus my contribution for week
Macro Thoughts on “Global” Micro-History
Micro, macro, global, transnational, and spatial. All of these terms relate to our approaches to regions and scale in history. Up to this week, I rarely considered that micro-history, centered in small-scale stories of individuals, could be applied to the
Bose and Conrad: Transnational History
The chapters from Bose’s A Hundred Horizons and from Conrad’s Globalisation and the nation in Imperial Germany emphasise the need for transnational history. Bose looks beyond a specific nation or empire and instead looks at the networks of the Indian
The Fear of Homogenisation
I haven’t done much with nationalism prior to this course. ‘Globalisation’ is thrown around in pretty much every International Relations course in this university, but most of my personal research regarding globalisation focuses on the areas outside of Europe. I
Being Different: Nationalism Constructed by Transnationalism
‘German nationalism has, from its beginnings, […] always been a transnational nationalism’. Conrad makes this statement in the introduction of his iconic monograph Globalisation and the Nation in Imperial Germany (p.20). He justifies his claim by describing how the mobilisation of groups
Week 3 Thoughts
I would like to preface my comments on this week by saying that I found Sebastian Conrad’s chapters engaging enough to work through even whilst running a fever, which says a lot for their quality. Conrad’s suggestion that increasing
Mass Mobility and Nationalism
One important notion of the nineteenth century that connects each of the readings for this week is the idea of mass mobility, and the increase in the movement of people both in and out of a country. This idea of
