By Liu Xincheng

Published in Global Hitory Review, vol.2, 2009, pp.3-12.

Abstract:

In recent decades, the deepening of globalization, the spreading of postmoderism, and the latest developments in scientific research have enabled more and more historians to turn their attention to global history and recognized interaction as a key concept of global historiography. All human societies interact to get organized an interaction drives world history forward. Interaction means to encounter, to connect, to communicate, to associate, and to mutually influence instead of diffusion, dominance or even the shaping of one part of the world by another.?In this sense, interaction serves?as an effective antidote to various forms of ?”Western-centristic” historiography and offers a useful guide to diverse methodologies for global history writting. The paper gives a historical examination of the root cause of Western-centrism before recounting the brief rise?and rationale of various models of global history.

Key Words: Interaction; Global Historiography; Western-centrism