Social and Environmental History in the Anthropocene

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Warde
Keyword(s):  
Environmental History ◽  
Social History ◽  
Human Activities ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Future ◽  
History Of ◽  
Longue Duree ◽  
Longue Durée

This chapter takes seriously the notion of the ‘Anthropocene’—the concept of the period of history from which human activities have had global effects on the environment—and looks at it historically, across the longue durée, noting that the environment is itself a concept with a history of its own. The chapter argues that environmental history is very largely entwined with social history and that this poses a challenge for historians. Should we think of ‘the social’ and ‘the environmental’ as two different (albeit connected) spheres, or should we reconceptualize what ‘society’ and ‘environment’ might mean, both historically and for the future?

Construction of the racialised and colonised other: global comparatives in imperial and colonial archaeology

Antiquity ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 93 (369) ◽  
pp. 823-826
Author(s):  
Uzma Z. Rizvi
Keyword(s):  
Social History ◽  
Military Government ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Convincing Argument ◽  
Classical Archaeology ◽  
Colonial Archaeology ◽  
French Military ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Future ◽  
History Of

Whereas Sarr and Savoy (2018) focus on artefacts taken from various African countries after 1885, Incidental archaeologists, considers “the first four decades of the French conquest and pacification of Algeria under the authority of the French military Government General” (p. 24). Throughout the volume, Effros presents a convincing argument in which the social history of military infrastructure lays the groundwork for the future of the French civilising mission. She is clear about the magnitude of the task that the book is engaged in; it provides links between early French archaeologists and epigraphers and their place within the development of the disciplines. It also considers the ways by which romanticised narratives, created by French officers, about the classical archaeology of Algeria led to irresponsible destruction of antiquity, violence against local resistant populations and classifications that became constitutive of colonial archaeological interest and practice.

‘Born in the corridors of the OECD’: the forgotten origins of the Club of Rome, transnational networks, and the 1970s in global history

2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthias Schmelzer
Keyword(s):  
Environmental History ◽  
Social History ◽  
Early Period ◽  
Transnational Networks ◽  
Global History ◽  
Limits To Growth ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
Post War ◽  
Club Of Rome

AbstractThis article re-examines a contested chapter in the international and environmental history of the 1970s. Even though largely neglected by historical research and in the public memory, the Club of Rome – widely remembered for its 1972 report The limits to growth – was not only born within the OECD, but was also in its early period strongly influenced by debates within this think tank of the industrialized countries. Using previously overlooked sources, this article analyses this highly unlikely OECD–Club of Rome nexus. It not only offers a privileged view into the social history of international policy-making and the related personal entanglements and ideological transfers at a key moment of post-war history. It also demonstrates that the social, intellectual, and economic turmoil of the late 1960s prompted a rethinking of the economic growth paradigm, even within those technocratic institutions that had aspired to guide the post-war industrial growth regime. The article argues that these links are not only vital for our understanding of the relationship between acquisitive growth capitalism and environmentalism, but also enable a more profound understanding of the role of transnational networks in global history and the appreciation of the place of the 1970s in world history.

scholarly journals Re-Presenting the Future of Medicine’s Past: Towards a Politics of Survival

2011 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
pp. 289-294 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger Cooter
Keyword(s):  
Social History ◽  
Political Action ◽  
The Body ◽  
History Writing ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Face ◽  
Big Picture ◽  
History Of ◽  
The One

The ‘death’ of the social history of medicine was predicated on two insights from postmodern thinking: first, that ‘the social’ was an essentialist category strategically fashioned in the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; and second, that the disciplines of medicine and history-writing grew up together, the one (medicine) seeking to objectify the body, the other (history-writing) seeking to objectify the past. Not surprisingly, in the face of these revelations, historians of medicine retreated from the critical and ‘big-picture’ perspectives they entertained in the 1970s and 1980s. Their political flame went out, and doing the same old thing increasingly looked more like an apology for, than a critical inquiry into, medicine and its humanist project. Unable to face the present, let alone the future, they retreated from both, suffering the same paralysis of will as other historians stymied by the intellectual movement of postmodernism. Ironically, this occurred (occurs) at a moment when ‘medicine’ – writ large to include the biosciences and biotechnology – could easily be said to be the most relevant and compelling subject for understanding contemporary life and politics (global, local, and individual) and, as such, the place to justify the practice of history-writing as a whole. God knows, legitimacy has never been more urgent. But how can this be effected? Political action seems more likely than prayer. But let us begin by reviewing the nature of the problem that demands this response.

South Asia’s Coastal Frontiers

2018 ◽  
pp. 210-228
Author(s):  
Sunil Amrith
Keyword(s):  
South Asia ◽  
Environmental History ◽  
Colonial Rule ◽  
Environmental Footprint ◽  
Environmental Consciousness ◽  
Coastal Fisheries ◽  
Ecological History ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
Longue Duree

This chapter explores the environmental history of coastal South Asia. The coast has been a liminal zone—ecologically, culturally, and economically. This chapter argues that the social and ecological history of coastal South Asia, over the longue durée, allows us to reintegrate histories of oceanic commerce, with terrestrial histories of the state’s expanding power over nature. The chapter explores two intertwined strands of coastal environmental history under colonial rule: the history of coastal fisheries, and the expanding environmental footprint of coastal India in an age of imperial globalization. The chapter concludes by examining the acceleration of coastal transformation from the 1970s, accompanied by rising environmental consciousness.

The Journal Korall and Hungarian Social History: Between International and National Contexts

2008 ◽  
Vol 34-35 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 327-353
Author(s):  
Anders Blomqvist
Keyword(s):  
Cultural History ◽  
Environmental History ◽  
Social History ◽  
Review Essay ◽  
Demographic History ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Research Programme ◽  
Historical Sociology ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of

This review essay evaluates the evolution of the Hungarian journal of social history, Korall társadalomtörténeti folyóirat (Coral: A journal of social history), founded in 1999 as a new forum of social history research. Korall promoted two distinct understandings of social history, stated only implicitly in the first years of the journal, but later elaborated more explicitely by the editors, as core definitions of their research programme. A first, narrow acceptation places social history within the field of (historical) sociology and favours structural approaches and concepts specific to the social sciences rather than the actual historical context. A second definition is wider, including a variety of topics such as environmental history, cultural history, economic, and demographic history, being meant to function as a powerful counter-discourse against positivistic, traditional and political-orientated history, still dominant in contemporary Hungarian historiography. Based on a combination of qualitative and quantitative content analysis, the review essay argues that, during its eight years of existance to date, Korall has undergone a process of internationalization. Although most articles published in the journal continue to focus on topics pertaining to the history of Hungary—especially during the “dualist period,” 1867-1918—references to international events, authors, and theories have lately acquired a greater importance.

‘englandpast.net’: a framework for the social history of England*

2002 ◽  
Vol 75 (189) ◽  
pp. 296-315
Author(s):  
Anthony Fletcher
Keyword(s):  
Social History ◽  
Nineteen Twenties ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Future ◽  
History Of ◽  
Future Work ◽  
Made In

Abstract This article reviews the progress made in research and writing on English social history since the nineteen–twenties and proposes a framework for the future work of the Victoria County History. This is built around six principal concepts: three of these—space, gender and order—help to unravel the structures within which people have lived; while three—custom, responsibility and politics—provide an entry into the dynamics of the English social past.

scholarly journals Revisiting Michael Pearson’s Indian Ocean Littoral

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rila Mukherjee
Keyword(s):  
Indian Ocean ◽  
Social History ◽  
Common Heritage ◽  
Shared History ◽  
History Of ◽  
Longue Duree ◽  
The Indian Ocean ◽  
Longue Durée

This essay rethinks Pearson’s formulation of littoral society in two essays he wrote in 1985 and 2006. While the first made a case for coastal history, the second continued the theme into the littoral, the strip between land and sea. Pearson foregrounded the universality of a clearly discernible littoral culture on coastlines along and across the Indian Ocean. This translated consequently into a shared history and a common heritage across the ocean’s diverse shores. At a time when maritime historians were writing what were essentially land-based histories on ocean spaces, Pearson’s social history of the littoral over a longue duree was a significant intervention.

Chronological Depths and the Longue Durée

2015 ◽  
Vol 70 (02) ◽  
pp. 285-291
Author(s):  
Christian Lamouroux
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Economic History ◽  
Chinese History ◽  
Short Contribution ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
Longue Duree ◽  
Longue Durée ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
Fernand Braudel

Abstract This short contribution seeks to place David Armitage and Jo Guldi’s article within a broader historiographical context, enlarged to include the history of China. From the outset, Fernand Braudel was careful to link his vision of the longue durée with the new “area studies” exploring international cultures. By studying social and economic history and more generally by using approaches drawn from the social sciences, European and American specialists of China have deconstructed the overly longue durée of Chinese history and shed light on its dynamism, previously repressed and concealed by the notion of a so-called “civilization.” This process facilitated a successful specialization, which can today be supported by the “big data” being compiled in circles close to the two authors.

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