The Problem of the “Early Modern” World

Was there an modern world? From a glance at book titles, one would think there is a well-defined period in global history that cuts across nations and is recognized as modern. According to literally hundreds of volumes covering Europe, North Africa, the Ottoman Empire, China, India, Japan, and the New World,') these societies either had their own modern periods, or were part of an modern Moreover, a number of major universities have established centers or programs for the study of Early Modern History. However, I would now argue that we (for I include the title of one of my own books) have fallen into a terrible error when we use the term modern. In a word, the modern world wasn't. That is, it was not in any way modern, and certainly not an early form of modernity. Somewhat as the Holy Roman Empire, in a famous aphorism, was neither Holy, Roman, nor an Empire, so I would now say a rigorous review of evidence would show that the modern world was neither early, nor modern, although it was arguably, in its trade relations, a single world.