Gaining Ground

A paradox characterizes social historiography: simultaneous accumulation and fragmentation of knowledge. We understand social structures and processes in the past much better than we did a few decades ago. At the same time, much that once appeared to be solid has melted into thin air. Our discipline has splintered and there is a serious risk that connections between different historic processes become obscured. We should not accept this paradox as permanent, but solve it with a new paradox: further extension of the field (by "globalizing" the discipline and by including the non-modern) and integration through multiple and intersecting Partial Grand Narratives.