Why Do Expectations Persist that Global History Should Be History?

Historians seem to have difficulty accepting that “global history” is not historiography but is historical sociology. Since the discourse of global history as historical sociology is long and prominent, this difficulty is a problem in itself. This essay suggests possible explanations, and proposes that theorising in “global history” is not waning, but it may be moving towards liberation from its deep and exclusive roots in European and North American intellectual culture. Image caption: Pirî Reis, Oval map of the world with the Pacific Ocean in the center, in Kitāb-i baḥriye (Book on navigation), Walters Ms. W.658, 1525, fol. 23b r, detail.