polite language, the disputations are conducted on a number of fronts at once, a nd the frame of mind of the disputants ranges from a sporting pleasure with maki ng point after point to a savage determination to win the day. Although a sense o f negativity creeps into this notion of Manning s, a strengthening of world histor y can also emerge from this back and forth debate. World history will take shape as scholars push each other to clarify and defend ideas, while remaining skepti cal and critical readers. This debate is key to avoiding either a stagnation of ideas or a dilution of possible new insights. As Manning asserts, The exciting de bates and the real advances in knowledge come when multiple scholars are working on related topics, testing their assumptions, data, and interpretations against each other s. As world history moves forward, as a discipline, historians would do well to keep this in mind. In addition to internal debate, a need to defend wor ld history as a discipline is st... ... middle of paper ... ...006): 69-91. Frank, Andre Gunder. ReOrient: Global Economy in the Asian Age. Berkeley: Univer sity of California Press, 1998. Hobson, John. Explaining the Rise of the West: A Reply to Ricardo Duchesne. The Journal of the Historical Society 6, no. 4 (December 2006): 579-599. Landes, David. The Wealth and Poverty of Nations: Why Some Are So Rich and Some So Poor. New York: WW Norton and Company, 1999. Manning, Patrick. Navigating World History: Historian Create a Global Past New Y ork: Palgrave/MacMillan, 2003.