Abstract
Who thinks the world ? Men of the past or historians of the present ? Universal history as it had been practiced since antiquity was transformed from the 16th century onwards in a variety of contexts, from East Asia to Spanish America. Thanks to his knowledge of archives scattered around the world, and his mastery of the languages and historiographical traditions of Asia, Europe and the Americas, S. Subrahmanyam puts the history of networks and exchanges of goods, myths and ideologies back into perspective, moving beyond traditional geopolitical frameworks based on the nation-state model. He presents global history as a field defined and redefined by " histories in conversation ".
