1

World History: Early Civilization (HIST-1131-01)

Assignment 1 Essay review

Fortunate Ekwueme

0682514
 2

September 29 2020History has always been a human subject with mysteries and lessons

to lay the foundation for more comprehensive development in the future. For decades, people

have learned to apply history in fostering major developments while avoiding the mistakes made

by their predecessors. Every historian is aware that there is nothing new given that the

conceptualization of new global history is dependent on the steps developed by others in the past.

In the articles ‘’Conceptualizing Global History’’ by Mazlish Bruce and ‘’African Histories and

the Dissolution of World History’’ by Steven Feierman, the authors introduce and describe

pivotal points of the most important historical events around the world. The influences and

foundations for development today for instance technological advancement and economic

globalization are the breakdowns and failures of the past. Both articles explore the world’s new

arrival into a global era and assert on the need to attain historical awareness regarding the

contributions made by historical predecessors to match the changing events. Therefore, both

introductions have their own qualities and demonstrate the author's own style/personality, which

highlight the need for further comparative analysis to establish their strengths and weak points in

presenting their arguments.

Historical consciousness is likely to have huge impacts on the development of historical

concepts and also shape the policy making process in the future. In his article Mazlish holds that

historical awareness znd it is a concept that is more relevant to recent events and in general the

modern world. Mazlish does not give a fixed and specific definition of the concept of "world

history" but performs it as an attempt and effort to confront other aspects of the past around the

world. The authors suggest that global history is a technique for dealing with all the processes

which have shaped the globalized world to its present state given that global history is all about

globalization and genealogy. It is an approach aimed at shaping the enduring contributions of

 3

historians in providing alternative solutions to old European notions of the past. More factors

need to be taken into consideration because it lacks fixed principles to choose from in order to

most usefully define the development direction of history. This is a great document for making

educational compilation of history textbooks, but most historians in the world seem to consider

this article as quite superficial, full of shortcomings, and incomplete the most important

milestones assessing the true value of history. World history is very much more in-depth and

profound than that, Mazlish Bruce is just mentioning some quite important facts, only briefly

discussing the surroundings of core values in the true global history.

Mazlish's approach to dealing with the processes and principles that shape the current

system of globalized worlds is the succeeding approach of global history instead of world

history. Several factors that are responsible for globalization according to Mazlish are

environmental issues, nuclear threats, space exploration, communication links and the growth of

multinationals. Therefore, in addressing these concepts, the authors urge that global history

should refrain from the use of Eurocentric conceptualizations by focusing on both local and

national developments1. Above all, the lack of respect for political boundaries and the

proliferation of multinational corporations affect the economic fortunes of many peoples

spanning the world. Mazlish also suggests that, when faced with these problems, global history

should not refer to Europeanized concepts or to prefer analytical methods more relevant to each

country2. In addition, we should also be careful when choosing an argument and justify its

constructiveness for global and local development.

According to Mazlish Genealogy and the development of globalization are the two main

factors that form the concept of "global history", also the main factor that plays a huge part in

1
Mazlish, Bruce. "An introduction to global history." Westview Press (1993)
2
Mazlish, Bruce. "An introduction to global history." Westview Press (1993)
 4

upgrading and elaborates the world's social values today3. Mazlish notes that the New Global

History is different based on its implication4. According to him, globalization is a novel process

that is on-going but world history has always been in existence as it stretches in every direction.

Mazlish emphasizes that the factors that influence globalization unlike global history are space

exploration, researching, and manipulating satellite information, examining nuclear weapons

threats that each individual nation can hardly manage properly and safely5. Mazlish mentions that

while developing the new global history concept, the foundation lies in the conceptualization

given by historians in the past since the global history follows a lineage of ideologies. Hence,

this leads to his notion that there is nothing new under the sun as the contributions of historians

must always be acknowledged in understanding the globalized world and its history.

Mazlish invites the readers of the introduction to reconsider the changes that have

occurred to the ideological and political nature of the concept of civilization. He highlights the

proposal that civilization ought to retire from scholarly research and replaced by more improved

conceptual tools to help individuals comprehend the reality of both local and global humanity

differences. Mazlish tackles the subject from a historical perspective as giving readers a trip to

the source and eventually moves to evolution of the civilization notion beginning with the city

life to represent the civilized to the barbarian distinction. The dualistic opposition was changed

during the 18th century by European enlightenment thinkers in universalizing the Eurocentric

norms at the beginning of the contemporary globalization era.

Mazlish introduction has completely summarized his main points about the historical

conception as well as its application of history in the current world development towards

3
Mazlish, Bruce. "An introduction to global history." Westview Press (1993).
4
Mazlish, Bruce. "An introduction to global history." Westview Press (1993).
5
Mazlish, Bruce. "An introduction to global history." Westview Press (1993).
 5

globalization. However, the information given is too superficial and not to mention really useful

historical values. But he did recommend a new approach to make use of history and reconciling

cultures past and present. This is a highlight in his presentation that has fascinated quite a few

other historians.

In terms of introduction, Mazlish successfully lead the reader to his own conception and

philosophical world. He also explained in details about the important points and gave evidence,

points of alignment, good support for each other. From the perspective of an ordinary reader, I

feel this is an excellent and fascinating opening, a mixture of abstraction and realization in both

concepts and presentations. However, according to the evaluation of other historians, this article

is of more relative nature and is quite flawed in mentioning and using historical landmarks

intelligently. To be blunt, he feels that the article has not yet invested in the application of history

and is only a superficial rather than a practical method.

Mazlish again places more emphasis on proving global history as a good coping with

controversial issues discussed by nations today. He emphasizes that researching and learning

about past lessons will help people make ever-greater improvements, and that is why we should

lean on it and focus on proceeding further research on global history6. His argument is built on a

solid basis. He introduce general concepts about global history and slowly lead readers into his

conception of applying global history. He highly appreciates the application of it in scientific and

technical advances as well as the most effective problem solving because it is drawn from the

efforts and blood of each nation. Mazlish mentioned some prominent research to support his

point and this adds up quite credibility to his thesis.

6
Mazlish, Bruce. "An introduction to global history." Westview Press (1993)
 6

On the contrary to Mazlish’s article in ‘’African Histories and the Dissolution of World

History’’ Feierman goes deep to provide thorough details about historical concepts in each stage

of human development. The article takes a deep dive into Africa in particular and how the

dramatic changes in historical events have changed the direction of the world. Referring to

essential facts and making an assessment in the correlations between African History and

American scholars' approach to them. Feierman argues that a majority of publications announced

in Tanzania and Africa do not reach and affect the continued development of the US 7. Although

it is a valuable resource for the most appropriate critical key points conducting direct implement

of historical and knowledge operations, it is not circulated to the knowledge library of the

scholars and this is also the reason why historians in America often have difficulty in summing

up and understanding African historical knowledge, concepts that are rich in meaning, and

humane/practical.

Feierman's arguments are extremely well-structured and easy to follow with each case

study and research mentioned in order to supplement each previous thesis section. He

emphasized the importance of adopting the dense history of African regions and putting it into

practice to improve the trend of developing globalization in a more comprehensive way. He also

mentioned some of the limitations and reasons why publications in African could not reach other

parts of the world and so unfortunate. Global history is a comprehensive integration of cultures

that blend and learn from each other, so records of African progress and development should also

be explored and studied further, because it also has a lot of good points and has enlightened

Feierman personally8. Chronically organized, the argument is presented with a firm timeline

7
Feierman, Steven. "African histories and the dissolution of world history." Africa and the disciplines: The
contributions of research in Africa to the social sciences and humanities (1993): 167-212
8
Feierman, Steven. "African histories and the dissolution of world history." Africa and the disciplines: The
contributions of research in Africa to the social sciences and humanities (1993): 167-212
 7

where historians gradually recognized the heavy and large influence of African history. In fact,

African History was underrated and only a few people paid attention to such land that was both

poor and full of disaster. However, Feierman highlights that this thought completely goes against

the current learning trend of the world. We learn from the most extreme sufferings, we study to

avoid causes that can drag down the general growing statistic of civilization. Africa is the

gathering of poverty and misery, so every single milestone that Africans have struggled with

over the years to develop, is an excellent resource for historians to study and draw on lessons 9.

As mentioned, history is the cradle of development, so the more factors exploited in history

means more and more innovative practices and developments reformed in the present world. Do

not underestimate the history of any civilization at all, learn, and rise.

In conclusion, both articles are excellent introductions to the concept of global history

with their own guide to the thesis. He both appreciates the pragmatic value of history for human

development and expresses a desire to motivate more people to pursue their paths and

philosophies. Both arguments are reasonably presented with convincing evidence. While Mazlish

focuses on concepts in a vague way to expand readers' imagination and awareness of global

history, Feierman focuses on practical studies to directly prove his point of view. Mazlish still

has some shortcomings in the representation of information at a deeper depth and Feierman is

able to confuse readers through a series of consecutive scholar case studies. However, both are of

the high reference value and are worthy of reflection.

References

9
Feierman, Steven. "African histories and the dissolution of world history." Africa and the disciplines: The
contributions of research in Africa to the social sciences and humanities (1993): 167-212
 8

Feierman, Steven. "African histories and the dissolution of world history." Africa and the

disciplines: The contributions of research in Africa to the social sciences and humanities

(1993): 167-212. https://doi.org/10.1080/02589001.2019.1627294

Mazlish, Bruce. "An introduction to global history." Westview Press (1993). https://www.h-

net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=137