Frequently Used Terms
Drafted by Patrick Manning, Deborah Johnston,
and Eric Martin

This is a list of key terms used in the study of history, and particularly world history, with brief definitions and discussion.

Analysis -- critical examination of a historical problem, event, or fact.

Area Studies -- studies of the world focusing on large areas defined by continents or culture areas: Latin America, Africa, Middle East, Western Europe, Russia & Eastern Europe, South Asia, Southeast Asia, East Asia. Western Civilization or the U.S. could also be considered to be ³areas² in this sense.

Argument -- in history, an interpretive conclusion on the past, and the reasoning and evidence to support it.

BC/AD, BCE/CE -- world historians have tended to relabel calendar years to give less emphasis to the religious aspect of the Christian calendar -- ³Before Christ² and ³Anno Domini -- year of our lord.² The revised terminology is BCE (³Before the Common Era² and CE (³Common Era²).

Big History -- History from the big bang until today. An approach setting the history of humankind in the context of the history of our physical and biological environment.

Big Picture -- an emphasis on placing events in relation to one another to gain a better understanding of how they might be part of a larger historical process. For example, we can examine the Cuban missile crisis as an individual event, or relate the Cuban missile crisis to the creation of the Berlin Wall and see a bigger picture of the Cold War.

Chronology -- a listing of events in time sequence.

Civilization -- this term is a conceptual tool for categorizing large numbers of human beings into a few major groupings: ³Mesopotamian Civilization,² ³Chinese civilization,² ³Islamic Civilization,² ³Western civilization.² World history is often presented through the comparison of civilizations. For early times, a civilization is usually understood to focus on cities, literacy, and a strong state, and the civilization is distinguished from the people beyond its limits, who are sometimes known as ³uncivilized² or ³barbarians.² For recent times, civilizations are seen to overlap, and their comparison tends to focus on which is most ³modern.²

Comparison -- identifying similarities and differences of two situations. Several types of comparison are possible: comparing isolated cases (Rome and 18th century Hawaii), comparing connected cases (the U.S. and Canada), and comparing cases that are part of a larger system (Nigeria and Congo in modern Africa).

Conceptualization -- in history, the critical evaluation of concepts used in interpreting the past. In world history, this includes a review of the logic entailed in using such terms as ³world,² ³civilization,² and ³progress.²

Connection -- linkage of any sort between events or processes in history.

Culture -- at an aggregate level and when used as a noun, ³culture² generally means the social and cultural patterns of a society, and is often used as a synonym for ³society.² The term ³culture² is also used much more specifically to refer to music, literature and the other arts.

Diffusion -- the spread of an item or a pattern from one area to another, without changing in the process. ³Diffusion² refers to a one-way street of historical change, and may be contrasted with more complex processes of change.

Dominance -- the establishment or maintenance of control of one region of the world or one aspect of society by another. Much of world history has focused on dominance: determining which groups have what type of power over whom, and how they attained that position, for instance in analyses of the rise of the West. But one may also ask whether history of the dominant is sufficient, or whether historians should focus on the connections of dominant and subordinate influences in the operation of a world including them all.

Dynasty -- a royal family remaining in power for more than one generation.

Ecumene -- as developed by William McNeill, this term identifies the periodic interconnection of large areas of the world into commercial, intellectual, and political contact with each other. For McNeill, one major ³opening of the Eurasian ecumene² was in the period 200 BCE to 200 CE.

Empire -- a political structure governing both a homeland and outlying areas. The homeland is the region from which the ruling power emerged, and where its power is most legitimate. The outlying areas are typically conquered or otherwise incorporated, and are typically marginal in their loyalty to the central power. People of the home area generally have more rights than those in outlying areas. Empires have been ruled as monarchies, as republics, as military dictatorships, or as bureaucracies.

Entrepot -- a trading post or port serving as a place for warehousing, bulking, and trading goods among merchants of different societies.

Era (or epoch) -- a period of time presumed to united by some common characteristic (e.g. ³the Medieval era² or ³the era of good feeling²).

Event -- an incident or occurrence. In history, as one goes back in time it becomes harder to distinguish between an event and a process. Martin Luther¹s posting of 95 theses was an event, but the Reformation was a process. The Mongol conquests were a process occupying most of a century; the sack of Baghdad was one event in that process.

Evolution -- a process of development, formation, or growth. In history, some authors have argued that change takes place through evolutionary change within each society, rather than through diffusion of influences from one society to another, or through interaction among societies. Evolutionary interpretations sometimes assert that change must pass through a set of stages.

Fact -- a thing that has actually happened or is true; something asserted to have happened or to have existed. Facts are usually events or achievements, though they may be processes (e.g., emancipation of slaves is a fact). Something asserted to be a fact may be disputed, so that we sometimes hear of ³true facts² though not often of ³false facts.²

Fusion -- in music, the combination of two or more musical styles into a distinctive new style. The term may be appropriated for history to apply to the development of distinctive new cultural traditions through the interaction of previous traditions.

Global -- an adjective referring to encompassing a large area or range of topics. Sometimes ³global² is seen to be larger than ³world,² sometimes the reverse. According to Bruce Mazlish, global history is the study of all the world in the modern era of globalization, while world history is an earlier and narrower field of study focusing on the comparison of civilizations or world regions.

Globalization -- the process of integrating the entire globe into a singular unit. The term has come into wide use in recent times to refer to the current growth of global connections in communications, the economy, and the environment. It is also applied to changes from the 19th century in transportation, communication, and European colonization. Globalization is usually seen as a new phenomenon, but one may also argue that globalization has taken place at a slower pace over a very long time.

Hypothesis -- in history, an interpretive statement purporting to explain past events. A hypothesis is set explicitly or implicitly in contrast to an alternative interpretation, and is based on a certain logic.

Interaction -- a term used to signal a two-way street of contact and change. Many times interaction is opposed to diffusion.

Interdisciplinary -- scholarly work utilizing the results of more than one discipline. Thus, historians may rely on the studies of archaeologists, linguists, economists, art historians, and geographers.

Interpretation -- in history, a selection and explanation of past events and processes, usually from a particular perspective.

Master Narrative -- a narrative of the past that explains the main line of history -- the broadest patterns or the most significant events. A master narrative is presumed to incorporate the more specific narratives of local histories, and the local narratives are presumed to be consistent with the master narrative. Some historians contest the notion that there can be a valid master narrative summarizing the history of all.

Methodology -- the methods of historians have wide scope and great variation. Methods include techniques of defining historical questions, of collecting data, of conducting analysis of the data, and of writing and presenting the results. The traditional methodology of history emphasizes criticizing sources; more recent methodology uses theories and techniques of many disciplines to develop data and analyze the past.

Millennium -- a period of a thousand years, or the end of a thousand-year period. We are nearing the end of the second millennium of the Christian calendar, and will soon begin the third millennium.

Modernization -- an interpretation of recent history in which change in all societies is seen as progressing in the direction of technological advance and social rationality. In this interpretation, the differences among societies are in the rate at which they create or accept modernization.

Narrative -- a sequential presentation of the past that conveys an interpretation by ordering events and processes. Narratives range from simple listings of events to nuanced presentations ranging from chronology to philosophy.

Nation -- in the 19th and 20th centuries, nations are societies unified by a common government, a set of national institutions, and a shared national culture. In earlier centuries, the term ³nation² applied to people of a common identity, such as an ethnic group, regardless of whether they had a national government.

National History -- the history of nations, their governments and societies. For the past century, most history has been written as national history. One approach to world history has been to treat it as an accumulation of separate national histories.

Nomads -- people whose life style requires moving from place to place, usually on an annual calendar. Pastoral nomads of Asia and Africa, living from cattle, camels, sheep, goats, and horses, have been sometimes dominant and other times subordinate in history. Most historians, centered in cities, have treated nomads as barbaric and marginal peoples.

Orientalism -- this term, coined in the 19th century, referred to European study of societies of the East, and particularly to study of the Muslim world by scholars with strong Christian beliefs. Edward Said¹s critique of orientalism emphasized that this scholarship, though sophisticated, was prejudicial to the peoples and societies labeled as the Orient.

People -- a term used in many ways by historians, from the simple use as the plural of person to the use of ³people² to mean an ethnic group (³the Igbo people²), a national group (³the Iranian people²) or to distinguish commoners from the elite.

Periodization -- choices made by historians to segment history. Varying schemes of periodization lead to widely different interpretations of the past.

Perspective -- in history, the outlook of a participant in or interpreter of history. The same facts of a battle may look different to a warrior on the field, to an observing child of that warrior, to a historian celebrating the victory a century later, and to a historian in still later times, after the victory had been reversed.

Rise of the West -- interpretations of world history in the past few centuries often focus on explaining how the nations of Western Europe and North America came to be dominant in the modern world. William McNeill took this as the title of his first broad interpretation of world history.

Society -- generally, a community of interdependent individuals. Arnold J. Toynbee used ³society² to refer to very large groups usually called civilizations. ³Society² is also used to refer to empires, nations, and ethnic groups both large and small. Historians often tend to assume that societies are bounded and homogeneous. But there have been many people who could be considered as members of more than one society, and the differences and conflicts within societies have usually been significant.

Syncretism -- the combination or reconciliation of differing beliefs in religion or philosophy. Historians use the term to refer to a wide range of cultural mixtures. Note that in syncretism, the original elements remain unchanged but are differently mixed into a result which is complex but not integrated; in fusion, the original elements are changed and made into a newly integrated result.

Stages -- in history, the idea that human society develops through discrete stages in a clear progression. The French Enlightenment thinker Condorcet proposed a list of ten stages; the American anthropologist Lewis Henry Morgan proposed the stages of Primitive society, Savagery, Barbarism, and Civilization.

State -- a formal political system with specialized rulers and a system for administration and consultation. States include monarchies, republics, empires, etc. World history focuses heavily on the study of states -- their ³rise and fall² -- but need not be limited to states. Many people have lived without states, in societies organized by lineage or other social grouping, and the lives of people within states have included far more than the story of government. Cultural, social, environmental and health histories, for instance, depend only partly on the state.

System -- a set or arrangement of things so related or connected as to form a unity, and the logic of the links among the various parts. In history, the ³system² is a conceptual tool with which the historian defines connections in the past. World historians may find it advantageous to think in terms of systems. Immanuel Wallerstein¹s vision of the modern world-system is one such application, but one may also use the notion of system to explore the changing relations among different types of popular music.

Themes -- subjects or topics on which a person writes or speaks. In world history, one may explore various categories of themes. First is the set of themes corresponding to the scholarly disciplines: politics, economics, social life, culture, and environment More specific themes include the impact of disease in human history, industrialization in the modern world, or changing conceptions of the relations between man and God. Teachers face the choice of whether to organize their world history courses by theme, rather than simply by period and by region.

Theory -- a logically consistent system of explanation which, given the necessary evidence, results in predictions of outcomes over time. Price theory in economics is one example; Marx¹s theory of social change through class conflict is another. The term ³theory² is also used in an everyday sense to refer to any idea or conclusion. Historians may do best by using such terms as ³interpretation² most of the time, and using the term ³theory² only to apply to a fully developed theory.

Trait -- a distinguishing characteristic. The term is often used in cultural studies to identify elements of culture, such as particular hair styles or means of food preparation. This approach tends to entail the assumption that traits are coherent and independent of each other -- atoms of culture, as it were. Debate continues as to whether culture may be seen as composed of independent traits.

Tribe -- a group of people claiming descent from an individual or group of common ancestors. Smaller such groups may be known as lineages or clans; larger such groups may be known as ethnic groups or nations. The term ³tribe² is often used arbitrarily to imply that the ³tribesmen² are primitive. Our newspapers use the term ³tribe² when describing Hutu and Tutsi of Rwanda, but do not use that term in describing Serbs, Croatians, and Muslims in Yugoslavia -- in each case, the groups share the same language.

Universal History -- this term was coined centuries ago by historians of Christianity, for whom the history of God¹s plan, of the Christian community and of those who might be saved seemed to be a full and universal history.

West -- ³the West² is often taken to be a player on the stage of world history, as if it were a single individual or a chorus of identical voices. It is often useful to ask what meant by ³the West² -- who is included and included, and how the boundaries or centers of the West seem to change over time.

World -- this term has many meanings precisely because it is used so commonly, but it always refers to a totality. The world of an infant is tiny indeed; the world of an astronomer is the universe. Most of us think of the world as the planet Earth, but the world of professional baseball is limited to North America, and the Wall Street Journal thinks the world consists of the U.S., Western Europe, and (recently) parts of East Asia.

World-system -- this term was coined by Immanuel Wallerstein to label his interpretation of world history as seen from early modern Europe. In this vision, an economic and political system of competing powers in the European center relied for the expansion of its wealth on interactions with a semi-periphery and a periphery, these being regions in Europe and the Atlantic under varying degrees of control.