World history: professional and popular
While the twentieth century saw the emergence of organisations, journals, conferences, internet discussion forums and syllabuses focused on world history, the field was not - and likely will never be - of interest to trained specialists alone.
Following in the tradition of H. G. Wells, Mark Kurlansky (Salt: A World History, 2002), Charles C. Mann (1493: Uncovering the World Columbus Created, 2012) and Lincoln Paine (The Sea and Civilization: A Maritime History of the World, 2013) are just three of the many writers who have produced world historical works for the benefit of non-specialist readers around the world. David Christian's web-based Big History project highlights the power of digital platforms for rewriting approaches to world history education, as does World History Connected, an e-journal published through editorial offices at Hawaii Pacific University. World history is, and probably will continue to be, characterised by multiplicity: first, in the use of data from different times and places; second, in the blending of many methods from a broad range of disciplines; third, in the diverse backgrounds and purposes of authors; and finally, in the mixture of narrative styles and organisational concepts. For this reason, it makes sense to speak of ‘world histories' rather than of ‘world history'.
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