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In recent years globalization has received a huge amount of attention. The media are replete these days with references to empire, imperialism, neo-imperialism, etc. If much of the work on these topics is vaporous—“globaloney,” as Paul Krugman (recycling a phrase originating with Clare Booth Luce) puts it—an increasing proportion is sufficiently serious so as to command the interest of scholars. Nonetheless, it must be pointed out that even the best of the recent work often suffers from a lack of historical perspective. Clearly, the time seems right for systematic scholarly examination and analysis of these concepts qua concepts and of specific historical episodes/manifestations of globalization, empire, and imperialism across space and time.
With the above in mind the Historical Society is pleased to announce that the organizing theme for its 5th conference, will be “Globalization, Empire, and Imperialism in Historical Perspective.” The conference will be held in Chapel Hill, North Carolina and hosted by the University of North Carolina. We envision a meeting in which historians across fields come together to deepen and enrich the state of knowledge about these vital concerns. Although we suffer no delusions about the degree of influence scholars typically have on contemporary policy debates, we are hopeful that the addition of historical context may lessen to some small extent the level of ignorance, if not partisanship characteristic of the same.
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