From universal history to globalism: What are and for what purposes do we study European ideas?

• Published in: History of European ideas Vol. 33; no. 1; pp. 72 - 86
• Main Author: Soder, Hans-Peter
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01.03.2007; Taylor & Francis Group
• Subjects: Europe; European history; Francis Fukuyama; Globalism; Globalization; Historiography; Ideologies; Immigration; International Relations; Middle Ages; Modernization theory; Schiller; Theoretical Problems; Universal history; World Economy; Universal history; Globalism; Schiller; Modernization theory; Francis Fukuyama; European history
• ISSN: 0191-6599; 1873-541X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.histeuroideas.2006.08.009

Globalism is probably the most frequently used term describing our current age. Found in many contexts, it is often a vague concept referring to a host of different figurations of post-industrial society. European expansion, the growth of the global economy, mass immigration and the planetary expansion of international relations are merely some of the phenomena associated with globalism. Yet globalism taken in its most neutral form of global history is not merely a trendy catch-all phrase for the challenges of our age but has its origins in the efforts of the enlightenment—to rewrite the theological universal histories of the Middle Ages. There is a close relationship between the historiography of universal history and the current ideology of globalism. By juxtaposing the two main strands of universal history (the universal history of mankind vs. the cyclical history of individual peoples) to the problem of European identity, I show that the theoretical problems which caused the demise of universal history continue to plague globalism. Such an analysis of the ideological foundations of globalism is central not only to the current debate on the (re-) construction of European history, but also in the discussion on what constitutes European ideas.