Global and Comparative History

[Noodles]

My primary area of interest is global economic history (and other related fields such as technology or politics). I would prefer to attend graduate school in the Northeast for personal reasons, but I would also be willing to go elsewhere for the right program. I am aware that other departments (e.g., political science or international affairs) may offer programs that fit my interests, but for now I would like to focus on history programs:

What are the best departments to study world or comparative history in the U.S., Canada, or Europe?

What lesser known departments offer respectable programs in world or comparative history in the Northeast?

Does anyone have any knowledge or opinion of the following departments - they are listed in no particular order? I have left out most of the Ivies and similarly regarded departments (e.g., JHU, LSE, Oxford).

University of Rochester

SUNY-Binghamton

SUNY-Stony Brook

Boston University

Boston College

University of Connecticut

Fordham University

Northeastern University

CUNY Graduate School

Clark University

University of Pittsburgh

University of New Hampshire

University of Delaware

University of Maine

Lehigh University

[TMP]

Brandeis University.

[StrangeLight]

My primary area of interest is global economic history (and other related fields such as technology or politics). I would prefer to attend graduate school in the Northeast for personal reasons, but I would also be willing to go elsewhere for the right program. I am aware that other departments (e.g., political science or international affairs) may offer programs that fit my interests, but for now I would like to focus on history programs:

Northeastern University

Carnegie Mellon University

University of Pittsburgh

world history is different from comparative history. "comparative" isn't really a field so much as a method. what is it exactly about global economic/technological/political history that you're interested in? what era? are you into empires and imperialism, international relations, transnational corporations? i ask because departments have different strengths. narrowing your interest will help you figure out where you want to apply.

regarding those three schools....

i attend the university of pittsburgh. if you have specific questions about the program, feel free to send me a pm. we're home to the world history center, where you'll find a lot of financial and academic/intellectual support. there are constant talks given by world historians, we have a postdoc in residence, and there are a handful of extremely talented graduate students here specializing in world history. the center is probably best known for its director (i think he's the director?), patrick manning. he works on africa in world history and writes marvelously succinct books on the entire world over 4+ centuries. he's also a very nice man. he has a lot of connections with other academics and institutions, so plugging into his network would serve you well. we are also in the midst of hiring another world historian and we have a particularly strong group of candidates to choose from. whoever gets the gig will be an asset to the department. we're also also hiring a british historian that focuses on imperialism, adding to the world-iness of the program. outside of the world history center, transnational/atlantic/global studies are pretty popular amongst professors and students within the department.

as for CMU, it's just down the block from pitt. students of either program can take courses at the other school, you can have advisors from either school, it's all very incestuous. i don't know if CMU is particularly well-known for world history. their strengths are african american, labour, and environmental history. it's a really good school but i'm not sure they have what you're after.

regarding northeastern, a degree of their reputation as a place to study world history came from the fact that pat manning was there. two or three years ago, pitt offered manning the world history center and he moved over here. i'm not sure who else at northeastern does global/international/world history.

Edited February 25, 2010 by StrangeLight

[deuterides]

I think I can chime in here to help you. Although I am in the middle of my application cycle, I work in a off-field of economic history, as I mostly study cultural and social movements emanating out of stock market crashes and other economic events, and particularly in the US and Britain (I know, its very timely!). Because of this, I billed myself as an Americanist, but essentially I can see myself going in a real transnational direction. I'm currently admitted at three programs, Wisconsin, UVA, and Pittsburgh, and I'm waiting for a few more, particularly Michigan, Harvard, and WashU. I can say that this is an amazing time time to be interested in these kinds of topics, not only because global economic history has been left slightly neglected by historians, such that much of the work has been done by economists and laywers. It also means that there is alot of work to be done here. On your list, I can recommend, based on my personal ongoing admissions epic, that BC, Vandy, Pitt, and Rochester (full disclosure- I applied to Vandy BU, and BC as well) are good options for you. GW not so much, although perhaps you have a better idea of someone than I did. Given that so few people state they work with these things, but many are beginning to because of current events, you are going to have to do some digging around. I really suggest emailing any person you think would be a potential match for you and outline your interests and see if they think you could that work there. The answers might suprise you, as many of the people who I found to be good matches would not have initially seemed so. For me, it brought the list of schools I could have applied to from about 20 to a nice 11, with a mix of ivies and top publics as well as a few other schools which I dropped here.

feel free to PM me if you have any quesitons, since we are playing in the same field.

[hopkinsgirl]

uhm, noodles. didn't you already ask us this:

[Phyl]

I attended University of Rochester for undergrad (history major and did some research). There isn't much to choose from outside of American and Western European history. The faculty they have listed as global don't teach a lot of global classes, or they are global in the sense they include American and Western European topics. The department has been working on getting a Central or South American history professor and a Asian (most likely Chinese) history professor. But UR is more of a science school and the history program isn't something they put a lot of money into. There are a lot non majors in the classes and it takes the level of class down a lot. It was frustrating as a junior and a senior I can't imagine how annoying it would be as a grad student.

Grad students don't teach classes and out of 15 history courses I took 3 had TAs, the professors let them give one or two lectures during the semester.

There are a lot of undergrad courses that are crosslisted as grad courses. The grad students would have to do an extra paper or two. I'd want more out of graduate study. From the graduate students I talked to they were all American history interested in abolition and suffrage or interested in medieval Europe.

As an undergrad I was happy with my experience, but my main interest is American history, so take it as you will. I did consider doing graduate studies in history but I'm not willing to deal with the poor job prospects, it wasn't the department that was a turn off. Just my 2 cents.

Edited February 25, 2010 by Phyl

[Noodles]

uhm, noodles. didn't you already ask us this:

Yes and no. I have narrowed my geographic area - in terms of where I would prefer to study - and have wanted input on specific programs outside the top tier. So far feedback has been good.

[Noodles]

I attended University of Rochester for undergrad (history major and did some research). There isn't much to choose from outside of American and Western European history. The faculty they have listed as global don't teach a lot of global classes, or they are global in the sense they include American and Western European topics. The department has been working on getting a Central or South American history professor and a Asian (most likely Chinese) history professor. But UR is more of a science school and the history program isn't something they put a lot of money into. There are a lot non majors in the classes and it takes the level of class down a lot. It was frustrating as a junior and a senior I can't imagine how annoying it would be as a grad student.

Grad students don't teach classes and out of 15 history courses I took 3 had TAs, the professors let them give one or two lectures during the semester.

There are a lot of undergrad courses that are crosslisted as grad courses. The grad students would have to do an extra paper or two. I'd want more out of graduate study. From the graduate students I talked to they were all American history interested in abolition and suffrage or interested in medieval Europe.

As an undergrad I was happy with my experience, but my main interest is American history, so take it as you will. I did consider doing graduate studies in history but I'm not willing to deal with the poor job prospects, it wasn't the department that was a turn off. Just my 2 cents.

Thanks for your help. I looked at the department's website and while many of the courses look interesting I can see your point regarding cross-listing. I also can't tell how often many of the courses run - some of the History of Science and Medicine courses are appealing too. Overall, it does seem lacking. I guess I will check again when I am ready to apply. It's hard to tell as these programs have faculty coming and going. Thanks again.

[Noodles]

Brandeis University.

I knew I forgot a Boston area school! Do you know much about it?

[Noodles]

world history is different from comparative history. "comparative" isn't really a field so much as a method. what is it exactly about global economic/technological/political history that you're interested in? what era? are you into empires and imperialism, international relations, transnational corporations? i ask because departments have different strengths. narrowing your interest will help you figure out where you want to apply.

regarding those three schools....

i attend the university of pittsburgh. if you have specific questions about the program, feel free to send me a pm. we're home to the world history center, where you'll find a lot of financial and academic/intellectual support. there are constant talks given by world historians, we have a postdoc in residence, and there are a handful of extremely talented graduate students here specializing in world history. the center is probably best known for its director (i think he's the director?), patrick manning. he works on africa in world history and writes marvelously succinct books on the entire world over 4+ centuries. he's also a very nice man. he has a lot of connections with other academics and institutions, so plugging into his network would serve you well. we are also in the midst of hiring another world historian and we have a particularly strong group of candidates to choose from. whoever gets the gig will be an asset to the department. we're also also hiring a british historian that focuses on imperialism, adding to the world-iness of the program. outside of the world history center, transnational/atlantic/global studies are pretty popular amongst professors and students within the department.

as for CMU, it's just down the block from pitt. students of either program can take courses at the other school, you can have advisors from either school, it's all very incestuous. i don't know if CMU is particularly well-known for world history. their strengths are african american, labour, and environmental history. it's a really good school but i'm not sure they have what you're after.

regarding northeastern, a degree of their reputation as a place to study world history came from the fact that pat manning was there. two or three years ago, pitt offered manning the world history center and he moved over here. i'm not sure who else at northeastern does global/international/world history.

Regarding world history and comparative history - I am kinda looking for boh. Haha. I think I phrased that somewhat awkwardly.

Thank you so much for the inside information regarding Pitt's World History Center. That was exactly what I was looking for - direction of the department, new hires, etc. So helpful indeed. As for CMU, I was really just wondering if there was any crossover - hoping someone, unprovoked, would just mention there was. I am interested in taking a few history of science/technology courses to supplement my focus on global economic history. I really appreciate your help and putting Pitt on my short list.

[Noodles]

On 2/24/2010 at 9:33 PM, deuterides said:

I think I can chime in here to help you. Although I am in the middle of my application cycle, I work in a off-field of economic history, as I mostly study cultural and social movements emanating out of stock market crashes and other economic events, and particularly in the US and Britain (I know, its very timely!). Because of this, I billed myself as an Americanist, but essentially I can see myself going in a real transnational direction. I'm currently admitted at three programs, Wisconsin, UVA, and Pittsburgh, and I'm waiting for a few more, particularly Michigan, Harvard, and WashU. I can say that this is an amazing time time to be interested in these kinds of topics, not only because global economic history has been left slightly neglected by historians, such that much of the work has been done by economists and laywers. It also means that there is alot of work to be done here. On your list, I can recommend, based on my personal ongoing admissions epic, that BC, Vandy, Pitt, and Rochester (full disclosure- I applied to Vandy BU, and BC as well) are good options for you. GW not so much, although perhaps you have a better idea of someone than I did. Given that so few people state they work with these things, but many are beginning to because of current events, you are going to have to do some digging around. I really suggest emailing any person you think would be a potential match for you and outline your interests and see if they think you could that work there. The answers might suprise you, as many of the people who I found to be good matches would not have initially seemed so. For me, it brought the list of schools I could have applied to from about 20 to a nice 11, with a mix of ivies and top publics as well as a few other schools which I dropped here.

feel free to PM me if you have any quesitons, since we are playing in the same field.

Thanks for your help. Congratulations on a few excellent admits! I'll take your advice and contact any faculty I suspect have interests similar to mine. I am interested in early and late modern world economic history so I'll probably avoid the Ancient historians. LOL. Your interests are indeed quite similar to mine - I too am interested in the social history of financial market calamities. I'll be sure to PM you if I think of anything. Thanks for your help. Best of luck!

[Noodles]

world history is different from comparative history. "comparative" isn't really a field so much as a method. what is it exactly about global economic/technological/political history that you're interested in? what era? are you into empires and imperialism, international relations, transnational corporations? i ask because departments have different strengths. narrowing your interest will help you figure out where you want to apply.

regarding those three schools....

i attend the university of pittsburgh. if you have specific questions about the program, feel free to send me a pm. we're home to the world history center, where you'll find a lot of financial and academic/intellectual support. there are constant talks given by world historians, we have a postdoc in residence, and there are a handful of extremely talented graduate students here specializing in world history. the center is probably best known for its director (i think he's the director?), patrick manning. he works on africa in world history and writes marvelously succinct books on the entire world over 4+ centuries. he's also a very nice man. he has a lot of connections with other academics and institutions, so plugging into his network would serve you well. we are also in the midst of hiring another world historian and we have a particularly strong group of candidates to choose from. whoever gets the gig will be an asset to the department. we're also also hiring a british historian that focuses on imperialism, adding to the world-iness of the program. outside of the world history center, transnational/atlantic/global studies are pretty popular amongst professors and students within the department.

as for CMU, it's just down the block from pitt. students of either program can take courses at the other school, you can have advisors from either school, it's all very incestuous. i don't know if CMU is particularly well-known for world history. their strengths are african american, labour, and environmental history. it's a really good school but i'm not sure they have what you're after.

regarding northeastern, a degree of their reputation as a place to study world history came from the fact that pat manning was there. two or three years ago, pitt offered manning the world history center and he moved over here. i'm not sure who else at northeastern does global/international/world history.

I just realized I failed to mention what I'm interested in. My primary interests are early and late modern world economic history. I am interested in trade, long-run growth, financial markets, thought of political economy, and pre- and post-Soviet economies. For popular reference, think Kenneth Pomeranz and Niall Ferguson. I'm not making a statement about the quality of their work, just the focus of it. That's the kind of stuff I'm interested in.

Also, I looked at Pitt's website and saw the World-historical Dataverse project. That looks VERY interesting and seems as though it would be quite useful for my potential research. Any comments on it?

[StrangeLight]

Regarding world history and comparative history - I am kinda looking for boh. Haha. I think I phrased that somewhat awkwardly.

Thank you so much for the inside information regarding Pitt's World History Center. That was exactly what I was looking for - direction of the department, new hires, etc. So helpful indeed. As for CMU, I was really just wondering if there was any crossover - hoping someone, unprovoked, would just mention there was. I am interested in taking a few history of science/technology courses to supplement my focus on global economic history. I really appreciate your help and putting Pitt on my short list.

the world history center, and world history in general, is definitely something that pitt is putting money into. you can certainly attend CMU and reap most of the benefits of being at pitt (and vice versa), so it could be worth an application. pitt has a separate department for the history of science and technology. you can take courses outside of the history department (and in fact, you're required to, and you're also required to have an advisor from outside of the department), so you could probably get a lot out of that department as well. i'd advise you to look at the history of science/tech department's graduate course listings and see if that's what you have in mind.

[StrangeLight]

I just realized I failed to mention what I'm interested in. My primary interests are early and late modern world economic history. I am interested in trade, long-run growth, financial markets, thought of political economy, and pre- and post-Soviet economies. For popular reference, think Kenneth Pomeranz and Niall Ferguson. I'm not making a statement about the quality of their work, just the focus of it. That's the kind of stuff I'm interested in.

Also, I looked at Pitt's website and saw the World-historical Dataverse project. That looks VERY interesting and seems as though it would be quite useful for my potential research. Any comments on it?

pitt has a few russian/soviet historians and one particular east europeanist that always has a few graduate students under her wing. for what it's worth, pat manning has his masters degree in economics and he's all about interdisciplinary work, so even though his stuff tends to focus on social/cultural history now, i think he would be capable of advising on economic world history (though it would be best to email him yourself to make sure).

and i have no idea what the world-historical dataverse project is. i can ask around next week if you like. i really don't know what goes on in half of my department.

[Noodles]

pitt has a few russian/soviet historians and one particular east europeanist that always has a few graduate students under her wing. for what it's worth, pat manning has his masters degree in economics and he's all about interdisciplinary work, so even though his stuff tends to focus on social/cultural history now, i think he would be capable of advising on economic world history (though it would be best to email him yourself to make sure).

and i have no idea what the world-historical dataverse project is. i can ask around next week if you like. i really don't know what goes on in half of my department.

Thanks for all your help. You've really been quite helpful. CMU seems to offer more courses in the history of technology that I'm interested in taking, but Pitt seems to be a better fit overall. I'll explore the the World-historical Dataverse website for more information on the program. Thanks again.

[dflanagan]

I knew I forgot a Boston area school! Do you know much about it?

I'll probably end up at Brandeis so... up until this year, they had two programs: one in U.S. history and one in comparative history. Their comparative program seems significantly focused on Europe, but they have faculty in a variety of areas and a global outlook. Check out the faculty list on their website. The new history program is going to combine the old ones, so that if anything your classes will combine students studying a greater variety of regions. My own research is pretty straightforward, focusing on the history of the rightist leagues in interwar France, but my work at Brandeis will probably take a more comparative outlook. For a small program with a (I think unfairly) low rank on the U.S. News list (36th tied with Georgetown and Notre Dame), they get a lot of respect (at least from my professors at Wesleyan) for the quality of their program and the successful careers of their phd's. They're really strong in early American history (with Pulitzer prize winner David Hackett Fisher on faculty) and transnational European history I believe, but I know of people writing on topics including "French religious orders in China during the Third Republic" and other global stuff. The department is very warm, welcoming, and not at all cutthroat from what I've seen, and the financial aid is pretty generous (tuition remission, 20k stipend and health care for everyone). Definitely worth checking out, I'm pretty psyched about it.

[Noodles]

I'll probably end up at Brandeis so... up until this year, they had two programs: one in U.S. history and one in comparative history. Their comparative program seems significantly focused on Europe, but they have faculty in a variety of areas and a global outlook. Check out the faculty list on their website. The new history program is going to combine the old ones, so that if anything your classes will combine students studying a greater variety of regions. My own research is pretty straightforward, focusing on the history of the rightist leagues in interwar France, but my work at Brandeis will probably take a more comparative outlook. For a small program with a (I think unfairly) low rank on the U.S. News list (36th tied with Georgetown and Notre Dame), they get a lot of respect (at least from my professors at Wesleyan) for the quality of their program and the successful careers of their phd's. They're really strong in early American history (with Pulitzer prize winner David Hackett Fisher on faculty) and transnational European history I believe, but I know of people writing on topics including "French religious orders in China during the Third Republic" and other global stuff. The department is very warm, welcoming, and not at all cutthroat from what I've seen, and the financial aid is pretty generous (tuition remission, 20k stipend and health care for everyone). Definitely worth checking out, I'm pretty psyched about it.

Brandeis appears to have a few faculty members working in areas that interest me and the comparative methodology is definitely something I would like to engage in. I'm sure Brandeis has a fine history program, but I think most people would agree that all of the universities listed ahead on USNWR do as well. Brandeis is probably hurt in the rankings because it is a small program. Also, Georgetown has better graduate placements thank several programs ranked ahead of it. The methodology is somewhat dubious because the rankings are based on the opinion surveys of historians. Then again reputation may be the only thing that matters. In any case, Brandeis definitely intrigues me because of its focus on world history and comparative methodology. Plus, the location is very good for me. Good luck! I'm sure you'll enjoy it there if you attend.

[RockEater]

I'll probably end up at Brandeis so...

Hopefully you'll get into your dream program, so I can take your spot

I only kid.

I kid 'cuz I love.