Roundtable: John Darwin's After Tamerlane: The Global History of Empire Since 1405

Abstract

made clear. Darwin's account of it is troublingly Eurocentric and triumphalist, with at best an oblique sense of the indebtedness of the Enlightenment to extra-European influences. The terms "Europe" and "the West" elide alarmingly. The reader grows increasingly uncertain of what Europe is. It apparently includes Russia, but much of what we conventionally think of as Europe, including, for instance,

Making Connections: John Darwin and his Histories of Empire

“…In this regard the authors channel Darwin's interest in the haphazard, patchy, and often limited nature of imperialism and past globalisation (or semi-globalisation as Darwin characterises it). 22 Liberia, the authors argue, was shaped but not overwhelmed or entirely transformed by the incursion of global capitalism in its imperial form.…”

“…He showed how the centres of imperial power, and the systems of global connectivity upon which they each in turn relied, altered dramatically over time. 20 John's triple-whammy of three major monographs within five years was the stuff of any departmental REF-coordinator's dreams (or nightmares), and surely stands as one of the outstanding achievements of historical scholarship of his generation. His work continues to set the agenda for research in imperial and global history.…”

Colonialism and narratives of human origins in Asia and Africa

“…This continues to reflect a view of East Asia that has persisted since colonial times of a region that is remote, isolated, closed off and inaccessible (J. Darwin, 2008). It has been cast for the past 80 or so years as (in Movius's words) a marginal region of "cultural retardation" (Movius, 1948, p. 411) that had made very little contribution to humankind.…”

The Struggle for the Eurasian Borderlands: From the Rise of Early Modern Empires to the End of the First World War. By Alfred J. Rieber.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014. Pp. x+640. $95.00 (cloth); $36.99 (paper); $30.00 (Adobe eBook Reader).

“…(2) According to John Darwin, it is in fact the dynamic interaction between these two geographical extremes of the Eurasian landmass which constitutes the real 'centre of gravity' of modern world history, favouring the gradual formation of a globalized economy in the late nineteenth century. (3) Yet it remains quite difficult to provide a comprehensive account of this complex relationship, avoiding the pitfalls of macro-economic or geopolitical determinism, while the turbulent history of the intermediate spaces (Middle East, Siberia, Central Asia) between the 'Far West' and the 'Far East' represents a powerful stumbling block for any great narrative of modern Eurasia, contradicting simplistic models of economic integration and political centralization. From this point of view, the case of the Russian Empire, which controlled some of these intermediate spaces since the early 18th century, is especially troubling for world historians: what role did it play in the increasing exchange between Atlantic Europe and Pacific Asia in the modern era?…”