The Dept. of Classical Studies Welcomes Walter Scheidel, Prof. of Classics and History, Stanford University for a talk entitled: Ancient History as Universal History.
Abstract:
Ancient History as Universal History
Universal history has a long pedigree, going back to the Hebrew bible, ancient Greece and Han China. The medieval Islamic ecumene and early modern European expansion steadily broadened its scope. Eighteenth-century Enlightenment historians sought to raise it to a new level. Since then, however, universalist perspectives have been marginalized by the evolving preferences, premises and pathologies of professionalized academia. Thanks to massive increases in our knowledge of the past and to novel analytical methods, the time for a fresh start has finally come. Antiquity, generously defined, is the perfect testing ground for a fully globalized engagement with the dynamics of human development and the foundations of our own lifeways.
For more information on Walter Scheidel, visit his website here.
Walter Scheidel’s research ranges from ancient social and economic history and premodern historical demography to the comparative and transdisciplinary world history of inequality, state formation, and human welfare.
