British Academy: The UK's National Academy for the Humanities and Social Sciences

Writing the History of the Global

British Academy, 10 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1

21-22 May 2009

Comparisons in Global History
Prasannan Parthasarathi (Boston College)

Comparison is in many respects the poor step-child of global history. Of course global historians know that comparisons are a critical part of their arsenal of techniques, but it is wielded far too little and when it is, it is often deployed without sufficient attention given to goals and methods. The purpose of this short paper is to elaborate upon these issues of goals and methods. It begins with a discussion of comparison in history, with a focus on Marc Bloch’s observations on the method of comparison. It then moves to consider the method of comparison in the writing of global history. The major conclusions of the paper are, first, that the method of comparison can lend greater rigor and analytic sophistication to the writing of global history and, second, that global history has a great deal to contribute to the development of the comparative method itself.