Another World History Is Possible
This chapter examines the wider interdisciplinary debate that followed the "death of another world" in 1989-91, which led to an era of globalization that challenged entrenched intellectual, political, and even geographical understandings of the world. It discusses why historians were latecomers to this booming arena while clarifying the conceptual difficulties facing those who would write a truly international or global history self-consciously situated outside strictly national narratives. In addressing linkages and connections across boundaries, it argues that the best avenue to create "another world history" is through a transnational approach that must, however, be combined with the concept of the translocal. In doing so, we enhance our ability to link effectively subnational specificities with supranational processes, extranational connections, and international institutions.