Page 160 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol IV

periodization, conceptions of 1461

Influenced by the utopian ideals of Condorcet and odization has become problematic in two respects. First,
Saint-Simon, Auguste Comte (1798–1857) developed a it tends to make global judgments about local histories.
tripartite linear scheme of human history, which moved What, for example, does it mean to characterize as “me-
from the Theological (religious) Era through the Meta- dieval” the period in Japanese history in which Murasaki
physical (philosophical) Era to the Positive (scientific) Era. Shikibu (978–1026) wrote the eleventh-century novel The
Perhaps the most influential modern schematizers of Tale of Genji? Even to describe sixteenth-century England
human time were Karl Marx (1818–1883) and Friedrich as “Renaissance” England ignores the fact that the island
Engels (1820–1895), for whom the engine of historical never possessed a classical culture that could be reborn.
change was economic and the trajectory of history was Second, the very artificiality of periodization (if not arbi-
determined. In their view, human civilization emerged trariness) suggests that it is always an ideological forma-
from an idyllic form of tribal communism into a succes- tion at the service of an implicit theory of history. For
sion of oppressive forms of the control of property and example, many scholars today prefer the term “early
the means of production—the three successive stages of modern” in lieu of “late medieval” or “Renaissance,” which
ancient slavery, medieval feudalism, and modern capital- suggests their repositioning the period as looking forward
ism—which would eventually lead to the global revolu- more than looking backward, but also a reflection of the
tion that would establish the workers’ paradise of com- self-consciousness of the “modern.” The rise of structural-
munist socialism.With the economic engine exhausted, ist approaches to studying history (which examine struc-
“history” would end. Since the fall of the Soviet Union tural institutions under specific material conditions) will
and its East European satellites, postmodern western neo- likely further question periodization. Nonetheless, histo-
conservatives have appropriated this narrative, claiming rians, teachers, academic departments, and popular cul-
an ironic victory for capitalism, the end of ideology, and, ture will no doubt continue to employ and redefine local
in Francis Fukuyama’s title from a popular post–Cold and global histories in terms of periods. Finally, the revival
War book, The End of History (the full title is The End of of both Christian and Islamic fundamentalisms (the for-
History and the Last Man [1993]). mer with an explicit dispensationalist or providentialist
Particularly since the mid-twentieth century, profes- view of the stages of human time) will certainly revive
sional historians have been less inclined toward grand some traditional schemes of historical development.
(or grandiose) universal theories of history with their
Thomas L. Long
schemes of discrete stages. The increasing professional-
ization of the discipline of historical studies since the See also Periodization—Overview
nineteenth century has meant that professional historians
increasingly specialize in a geographic area and histori-
cal period, defined more for academic purposes than for Further Reading
theoretical ones. Thus students are familiar with (and Borst, A. (1993). The ordering of time: From the ancient computus to the
their professors specialize in) such fields as colonial modern computer. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Breisach, E. (1983). Historiography: Ancient, medieval, and modern.
New England, pre-Columbian Aztec society, samurai Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Japan, Islamic Mali, or Victorian England. Collingwood, R. G. (1946). The idea of history. Oxford, UK: Clarendon.
Esposito, J. L. (1984). The transcendence of history: Essays on the evolu-
tion of historical consciousness. Athens: Ohio University Press.
Future Prospects Fitzsimons, M.A., Pundt,A. G., & Nowell, C. E. (1954). The development
For centuries, chroniclers and historiographers tended to of historiography. Harrisburg, PA: Stackpole.
Gerhard, D. (1956). Periodization in European history. American Histor-
define historical periods from the perspective of political ical Review, 61(4), 900–913.
power (such as dynasties of ruling families or the reigns Gerhard, D. (1973–1974). Periodization in history. Dictionary of the his-
tory of ideas (Vol. 3, pp. 476–81). New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons.
of monarchs).Among historians of the late twentieth and
Economic and Social History Department, University of Leicester.
twenty-first centuries, however, the phenomenon of peri- (2003). Historiography and the writing of history: Sources and methods: