This is the first text on historiography to adopt a comparative, global perspective for the modern era looking not only at developments in the West but at other historiographical traditions in East Asia, India, the Middle East, Latin America, and Sub-Saharan Africa as well. Beginning in the late eighteenth century, the book examines the impact of Western ideas of history on historical writing elsewhere and their interaction with the local traditions in an age of imperialism and colonialism. The authors argue that Western ideas of history were nowhere directly adopted but were accommodated to long standing intellectual and cultural traditions facing the challenges of modernization in an increasingly global environment. The book follows these developments into the current period and discusses the criticisms of postmodernism and postcolonialism of the modern historical profession and the reactions and resonances of historians around the world today. Originally published in 2008, this is not a direct translation of the English edition but a careful revision and updating taking into account the discussions of recent years, With this in mind certain sections have been rewritten, particularly those dealing with global history, feminist and gender history, history and memory, Marxism, and Latin America.

Professor Dr. Georg Iggers ist einer der bedeutendsten internationalen Geschichtswissenschaftler der Gegenwart. Er lehrte bis zu seiner Emeritierung als Distinguished Professor an der State University of New York in Buffalo und lebt heute in Göttingen und Buffalo, New York.