ABSTRACT

Histories have long been written on a variety of scales. Arguably, all historians shift scales within their works, and some historians have changed scales quite dramatically across their works too. There has been little reflection or discussion, however, on scale shifting in history making, including on why it is done and how it has been received. History theorist Marnie Hughes-Warrington explores the nature and purpose of scale shifting in this interview with two distinguished historians who have written on the biggest and the smallest scales, David Christian and Merry Weisner-Hanks. Christian, the founder of big history, and Wiesner-Hanks, a trailblazing gender world historian, reflect on the scale shifts across their careers. They explore whether little histories always turn into bigger ones, rather than the other way around, the ethics of scaling history up and down, and whether teaching is a key driver in establishing new approaches to scale in history.

摘要

长期以来，各种规模的历史都被写下来。可以说，所有历史学家都在其作品中改变尺度，有些历史学家也在其作品中极大地改变了尺度。但是，对于历史制作中的规模转移，包括为什么这么做以及如何收到，几乎没有反思或讨论。历史理论家玛妮·休斯-沃灵顿在采访中探讨了规模转移的性质和目的，两位著名的历史学家戴维·克里斯蒂安（David Christian）和梅里·威斯纳·汉克斯（Merry Weisner-Hanks）分别以最大和最小的规模进行了研究。悠久历史的奠基人克里斯蒂安（Christian）和开拓性的性别世界历史学家维斯纳·汉克斯（Wiesner-Hanks）反思了整个职业生涯的规模变化。他们探索小的历史是否总是变成更大的历史，而不是反过来，