Leading historian Lynn Hunt rethinks why history matters in today’s global world and how it should be written. Globalization is emerging as a major economic, cultural, and political force. In Writing History in the Global Era , historian Lynn Hunt examines whether globalization can reinvigorate the telling of history. She looks toward scholars from the East and West collaborating in new ways as they share their ideas. She proposes a sweeping reevaluation of individuals’ active role and their place in society as the keys to understanding the way people and ideas interact. Hunt also reveals how surprising new perspectives on society and the self offer promising new ways of thinking about the meaning and purpose of history in our time. Hunt's compact book should serve as the first port of call for students and general readers interested in how historians have interpreted and reinterpreted the emergence of the world around them.--Brendan Simms Hunt has...the most reliable eye for new trends in the American historical profession, and what she considers important always amounts to more than the sum of her current enthusiasms...she has a preternatural sense of the new new thing being touted by historians to study old things.--Samuel Moyn No one has a better nose for historical trends than Lynn Hunt. Her short, sharp book offers an inspiring declaration of interdependence for historians--to understand the global present collaboratively, using all our tools to unscramble the entangled past.--David Armitage, author of Foundations of Modern International Thought With characteristic concision and lucidity, Lynn Hunt takes on the methodological dilemmas facing all historians today...A thought-provoking snapshot of where historians stand now and where they might be headed. Lively and engaging, this book will help both budding and seasoned historians understand the current state of their discipline.--Sarah Maza, author of The Myth of the French Bourgeoisie Lynn Hunt is distinguished research professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. The author of numerous works, including Inventing Human Rights and Writing History in the Global Era , and a former president of the American Historical Association, she lives in Los Angeles.