The History Department at the University of California, Riverside, is
currently developing a graduate field in the history of the early modern
world. With the support of over a dozen faculty members whose research concentrates
on aspects of early modern history in the Americas, Europe, Africa and China,
the program will draw upon the rapid development of theory, method, and
research results in this new discipline. For our graduate students, we will
offer not only access to a dynamic and interdisciplinary area of current
scholarship, but also enrichment of their preparation as college teachers.
We will be offering our third year of graduate courses in 1997-98, and current
students can choose Early Modern World history as a field for their M.A.
and Ph.D. examinations. As course offerings expand in the coming years,
we hope to begin offering the Ph.D. degree in conjunction with traditional
regional subdisciplines, and possibly in collaboration with other UC campuses.
Once the basic courses are in place, faculty from related fields such as
historical sociology, art history, economic history, anthropology and literature
will be invited to help expand the interdisciplinary dimension of the program.
The early modern period comes between the pre-modern or medieval eras
around the world and the industrial age. Loosely defined as extending from
the thirteenth to the eighteenth century, it was a period when the links
already established between earlier civilizations grew substantially in
intensity, including the first systematic contact between the New and Old
Worlds. Characterized by expanding merchant capitalism, new divisions of
labor (often forced labor) between several metropolitan centers and increasingly
integrated peripheries, and the creation of colonial empires, the period
provided the economic and political preconditions for the emergence of modern
industrial mass societies. A decisive step in the definition of the early
modern world as a subject of study came with Immanuel Wallerstein's path-breaking
study, The Modern World-System (1974-80). Responding not only to developments
in European and colonial history, but also to the contemporary debate over
modernization and underdevelopment, Wallerstein's work provided a new overarching
model of analysis that focused in particular on the regional division of
labor and the accumulation and transfer of capital and economic hegemony
between regions. Starting in the late 15th century, he argued, the entire
world became a "world-system," linked in ways that distinguished
it qualitatively from earlier economic and political spheres. Resting as
it did on the conjunction of historical research and comparative historical
sociology, Wallerstein's work had profound methodological implications for
a history that placed the economic and social development of Europe, in
particular, in global comparative context.
In the succeeding generation, study of early modernity has broadened from
this essential base. On the one hand, in keeping with Wallerstein's own
goals but using a wide variety of methods, the concept of modernity and
its emergence from the pre-modern has come under rigorous scrutiny. Some
scholars have argued for an earlier or differently structured "world-system"
than the one Wallerstein proposed, while many others have used local studies
of trade, labor and social organization to expand or to challenge the Wallersteinian
synthesis. Cultural historians, meanwhile, have tremendously enriched our
understanding of the relations between colonial cultures and indigenous
cultures, and pointed to the variety of ways in which European economic
dominance was resisted or accommodated. Recently, scholars such as Andre
Gunder Frank and Kenneth Pomeranz have also challenged the implicitly Eurocentric
analysis that assumed the expansion of Europe's economic and political predominance
as the starting point for discussion of the early modern world. From its
early concentration on economic factors, then, early modern world history
has expanded to include political, social and cultural dimensions; in fact,
the discipline is still in the process of definition. By its very nature
comparative and interdisciplinary while relying on the contributions of
regionally focused specialists, the study of early modern history offers
the opportunity for UC-Riverside's faculty and students to participate in
the ongoing process of definition and scholarly creativity, if the appropriate
organizational context is available.
We offer graduate students advantages at several levels. First, even students
who take only individual courses will be exposed to substantial knowledge
about a wide variety of societies around the world, and their interactions
during the emergence of the contemporary global system. Such a background
will enrich their own work in their particular regional subdisciplines.
In addition, since the systematic study of world history raises major problems
of method and philosophical foundations by conducting large-scale comparisons,
working in the field should contribute to our graduates' theoretical sophistication
and comfort in handling comparative historical situations. Finally, beyond
offering students the chance to learn and participate in this changing field,
the program also prepares our graduates better for the jobs becoming available
in coming years. World history as a discipline for undergraduates is expanding
rapidly, as shown by the recent proliferation of genuinely new world history
textbooks. UC-Riverside was an early adopter of a world history requirement
for its undergraduates, but more and more other universities are following
suit.
The current faculty in the UC-Riverside History Department provide an
excellent foundation for studying the early modern world. In addition to
three faculty working on colonial North America (including the director
of the Laboratory for Historical Research, a specialist in quantitative
methods and historical demography, which are important areas of world-systems
scholarship), we have strong representation in early modern Europe including
Russia, along with faculty working in the history of Africa, colonial Latin
America, and China during the early modern period. Until now, the department's
programs at the graduate level have concentrated on United States history
and the history of modern Europe. Our new early modern field intends to
draw upon our considerable faculty resources currently less engaged in graduate
teaching by creating the framework for cooperation and shared teaching among
the early modernists. Desirable in itself for increasing faculty interaction,
the program will also allow the department to attract more and better graduate
student candidates as the university grows.
Besides benefitting faculty and graduate students who participate, our field
should also enrich the quality of our teaching to undergraduates. World
history remains a requirement for all UC-Riverside undergraduates, and teaching
assistantships for our world history courses are an important part of many
of our graduate students' careers here. Although the field's graduate courses
will not explicitly cover the ancient or post-industrial periods, the improved
theoretical perspectives and greater sense of interregional connections
that are essential to the program will result in better undergraduate teaching,
as well.
It is our intention throughout to couple the early modern world field
with continued concentration by faculty and students in the more traditional
regional specialties. The synthetic and comparative character of the one
will thus complement the specialization in depth that will continue to be
required for all degree candidates. At the M.A. level, our program offers
Early Modern World History as a separate minor field for students concentrating
in any of the other major areas of study. For Ph.D. students, we propose
in the future to offer degrees that combine a regional specialization with
a comparative perspective on the early modern world. Doctoral dissertations
in this future program would continue to require close detailed work with
the original sources of a particular place and time--essential to the modern
discipline of history--but would also be expected to place local research
in the context not only of national historiographies, but also of current
scholarship on the early modern world.
Our course offerings consist of three legs. First, an introductory colloquium
on the historiography of the early modern world (History 207) will define
the field for new students in the program. Then, in addition to courses
already offered as part of the various regional subdisciplines, we will
also offer topical courses on specific problems on a regular basis (History
277). Intentionally framed as a flexible rubric that encourages team-teaching,
courses have already been proposed or taught on the African slave trade,
on comparative viewpoints about migration across the Atlantic, and comparable
topics. Finally, students can work on early modern world topics in intensive
regional seminars, in which students will themselves conduct a comparative
research project using original sources.
We hope to enrich this basic program of courses by extending the program's
reach beyond the History department, and indeed beyond the Riverside campus.
The program will invite participation by scholars from related fields such
as art history, ahnthropology, sociology, economics and literature wherever
possible; the flexible nature of History 277 should make such collaborations
feasible within the constraints imposed by the internal needs of other departments.
There are areas where we can extend our reach by visiting professorships
or short-terms seminars. For example, we could bring in specialists in the
Islamic world, or on pre-modern Japan, two areas where full-time faculty
are not anticipated for some years. We could also use visiting professorships
for the purpose of bringing in specialists in comparative history or historical
sociology, who can contribute to the theoretical side of our program. Again,
since our program is designed from the bottom up to stress collaborative
teaching and scholarly teamwork, we can maintain the needed flexibility
to structure offerings that are intellectually valuable while also responding
to the constraints of budgets and schedules. Finally, our department already
has considerable experience with multi-campus seminars in special areas,
and such courses would be particularly valuable for our graduate students.
Working with peers from other UC and area universities, and gaining the
opportunity to learn from specialists at other institutions would increase
the depth our students gain during their studies. When needed, we might
also support our degree candidates for a quarter or more at other institutions
who had specialists that met the specific needs of a student's program,
and we would welcome faculty from other institutions on the doctoral boards
as appropriate.
The History department has already begun creating the base of necessary
courses for the establishment of the early modern world program. We have
offered a full slate of courses in 1996-97 and have begun examining doctoral
and master's students in the field. We have also made the first interdisciplinary
and interinstitutional contacts during 1996-97. Pending the availability
of funding, inter-campus exchanges and courses have begun and should continue
during this process.
Return to Early Modern World Homepage
updated 6/3/97 rh