Computer simulation shows that conflict fueled political consolidation in ancient and medieval history. War drove the formation of complex social institutions such as religions and bureaucracies, a study suggests. The institutions would have helped to maintain stability in large and ethnically diverse early societies. The study authors, who tested their theories in simulations and compared … Continue reading Empires, bureaucracies and religion arise from war →

Driven by a leitmotif of our own times, globalization, historians are increasingly conducting their research under the aegis of ‘global’ or ‘world’ history. This history no longer seeks merely to explain the origins of the global world in which we now live, or to destabilize a traditional, Eurocentric view of the path to modernity. Instead, it asks … Continue reading Forum: Globalizing Early Modern German History →

“I’m not saying, ‘After me, chaos,’” French President Nicolas Sarkozy told the newspaper Le Figaro with a wink in an interview published Friday, April 20, on the eve of the first-round election that saw him lose to Socialist Party leader François Hollande. But if Sarkozy was trying to make the indelicate point that, without him, the country is … Continue reading Après Moi, le Déluge →