Selling Mankind: UNESCO and the Invention of Global History, 1945-1976

In the wake of World War II, UNESCO promoted a new approach to the writing of world history in an attempt to support UN peacekeeping through "mental engineering" in the service of peace. The first task was to launch an authoritative world history without particular geographical orientations. This was intended to provide a profound understanding of the interdependence of various cultures and to accentuate their contributions to the common cultural heritage, thus disarming history by constructing a sense of international unity. This article focuses on the discussions leading up to the publication of the much-criticized History of Mankind volumes of 1963 to 1976 and demonstrates why it makes sense to characterize the project as the starting point of the genre of global history.