Conceptualizing the World ― An Exploration Across Disciplines

What is—and what was—“the world”? Though often treated as interchangeable with the ongoing and inexorable progress of globalization, concepts of “world,” “globe,” or “earth” instead suggest something limited and absolute. This innovative and interdisciplinary volume concerns itself with this central paradox: that the complex, heterogeneous, and purportedly transhistorical dynamics of globalization have given rise to the idea and reality of a finite—and thus vulnerable—world. Through studies of illuminating historical moments that range from antiquity to the era of Google Earth, each contribution helps to trace the emergence of the world in multitudinous representations, practices, and human experiences.

Erling Sandmo is Professor of History at the University of Oslo and the director of the National Library of Norway's Center for Historical Cartography. His most recent books are Monstrous: Sea Monsters in Maps and Literature, 1491-1895 (2017) and the co-edited Circulation of Knowledge: Explorations in the History of Knowledge (2018). He is currently working on a book on Olaus Magnus.