Journal of Early Modern History

"Early modern" is a convenient description for the age that was marked by a quantum leap in the level of global interaction. Between roughly 1300 and 1800 -- between the aftermath of the Mongol conquest in the east and the onset of industrialization in the west -- European expansion set the framework for new kinds of contacts and collective self-definition. The term "early modern" also points to a theory of modernization, and may suggest that the rhythms of European history can be replicated in other parts of the world; these implications are best taken not as a given, but as issues worth debating in any discussion about periodization and historical development. Certainly one legacy of the era in question is a rich store of materials for the mutual illumination, by comparison and contrast, of separate historical trajectories.

There is thus a case to be made that the "early modern" period of world history is uniquely suited to comparative treatment. There is also a case to be made that the comparative method is the best way of bringing disparate phenomena into relation with one another, while respecting their individuality. Bringing these two distinct but complementary propositions together is the special brief of the Journal of Early Modern History: Contacts, Comparisons, Contrasts.

JEMH is thus particularly interested in the comparison of quite different cultures on a given theme, whether in explicitly comparative studies, or by the grouping of studies (or books reviewed). One of the elements juxtaposed in this way will often be European, but not always. Moreover, the validity of such broad-gauged comparison is dependent on, or measured by, the success of comparative work of a more traditional sort, involving two or more elements of the same culture, or bringing quite different kinds of source materials to bear on the same phenomenon. Hence we welcome also studies dealing, for example, with two cities in northern China, or in northern Italy, or with a religious reform movement that has left its trace both in homiletic materials and in fiscal records. What ties these disparate approaches together, what gives the comparative method its strength, is that setting individual phenomena side by side is the historian's way of moving from the particular towards the general. We aim not so much for programmatic statements that claim to set research agenda, but for specialized research that bears explicitly on larger issues.

The Journal of Early Modern History: Contacts, Comparisons, Contrasts will appear quarterly,* beginning in the spring of 1997. General inquiries may be sent to the managing editor at the address above or via e-mail at jemh@umn.edu.

* Starting with Volume 7 (2003), JEMH appears in two double issues, twice a year.