Abstract
The subject of this essay was suggested by an ongoing debate among historians on the parameters and methods of World History. A major issue in this debate is Eurocentrism which, until recently, has dominated most of Western historical scholarship. Two notable exceptions are Johann Gottfried Herder (1744–1803) and Kurt Breysig (1866–1940) who viewed history, first and foremost, as the study of all humanity. The place of Europe in their historical thought thus is pertinent to today’s discussion.
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2 The New Science of Giambattista Vico. Revised Translation of the Third Edition by Thomas Goddard Bergin and Max Harold Fisch, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York: 1968; Johann Gottfried Herder, Reflections On The Philosophy of the History of Mankind, abridged and with an Introduction by Frank E. Manuel, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago & London: 1968. Note should be taken here of the most recent translation of selected writings by Herder on history, edited by Hans Adler and Ernest A. Menze, and translated by Ernest A. Menze with Michael Palma: On World History. Johann Gottfried Herder. An Anthology. M. E. Sharpe, Armonk, N. Y. & London: 1997. Besides welcome revisions of selections from the Thomas Churchill translation of Herder’s Reflections On the Philosophy of the History of Mankind, the volume offers for the first time excerpts from other writings of Herder on history.
Isaiah Berlin, Vico and Herder. Two Studies in the History of Ideas, The Viking Press, New York: 1976;
Ibn Khaldun, The Muqaddimah. An Introduction to History. Translated from the Arabic by Franz Rosenthal, 3 vols.. Pantheon Books Inc.. New York: 1958.
Kurt Breysig, Die Geschichte der Menschheit, 5 vols.. Walter de Gruyter & Co.. Berlin W 35: 1955;
See William H. McNeill, Arnold J. Toynbee. A Life, Oxford University Press, New York and Oxford: 1989, pp. 21 Iff.
Caroline Walker Bynum, »The Last Eurocentric Generation,« Perspectives, February 1996, pp. 3–4.
William H. McNeill, Mythistory and Other Essays, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago & New York: 1986, pp. 90–91.
Arnold J. Toynbee, A Study of History, Vol. I, second edition, Oxford University Press, London: April 1935, pp. 8–9.
Kurt Breysig, Kulturgeschichte der Neuzeit. I. Band Aufgaben und Maßstäbe einer allgemeinen Geschichtsschreibung. Georg Bondi, Berlin: 1900, p. 6.
Kurt Breysig, Der Stufenbau und die Gesetze der Weltgeschichte. Zweite, stark vermehrte Auflage.]. G. Cotta’sche Buchhandlung Nachfolger, Stuttgart & Berlin: 1927, p. VII.
See Samson B. Knoll, »Herderand Kurt Breysig,« in Wulf Koepke, ed.. Johann Gottfried Herder: Academic Disciplines and the Pursuit of Knowledge, Camden House, Columbia, SC: 1996, pp. 245–265.
Kurt Breysig, »Die Historiker der Aufklärung,« I: Die Zukunft, vol. 19 (15 May 1897), pp. 295–305; II: ibid. (22 May 1897), pp. 343–355; »Deutsche Geschichtschreibung im Zeitalter Herders,« ibid.. vol. 20 (16 April 1898), pp. 103–117.
See Samson B. Knoll, »Kurt Breysig: Eine Einführung,« in Kurt Breysig — Stefan George. Gespräche -Dokumente, Castrum Peregrini Presse, Amsterdam: 1960, pp. 54–55.
Kurt Breysig, Geschichte der Menschheit, V: Herrschaft der Könige — Herrschaft der Völker, Walter de Gruyter & Co, Berlin: 1955, pp. 155 & 156.
I have discussed this in »Beyond the Black Legend: The Anti-colonialism of Johann Gottfried Herder,« North Dakota Quarterly, vol. 57, No. 3, Summer 1989, pp. 55–64.
Kurt Breysig, Aus meinen Tagen und Träumen. Memoiren, Aufzeichnungen, Briefe, Gespräche. Aus dem Nachlaß herausgegeben von Gertrud Breysig und Michael Landmann. Walter de Gruyter & Co.. Berlin: 1962, pp. 126–127.
Kurt Breysig, »Formen der Weltgeschichtschreibungm,« Die Zukunft (12 December 1903), p. 400.
Kurt Breysig, Die Geschichte der Menschheit. Band I: Die Völker ewiger Urzeit. Georg Bondi, Berlin: 1907, p. VIII.
See: Kurt Breysig, Die Geschichte der Seele im Werdegang der Menschheit, M. & H. Marcus, Breslau: 1931;
Kurt Breysig, Gesellschafislehre. Geschichtslehre. Walter de Gruyter & Co.. Berlin: 1958, p. 3. The volume was edited by Gertrud Breysig who did not, however, sign as editor on the title page.
Kurt Breysig, Der Wille der Welt an unserem Tun, Walter de Gruyter & Co. Berlin: 1942, p. 177.
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Knoll, S.B. (1998). Europe in the History of Humanity. In: Adler, H., Koepke, W., Knoll, S.B. (eds) Herder Jahrbuch / Herder Yearbook 1998. J.B. Metzler, Stuttgart. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-476-03760-2_6
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