Global history and national history: An intractable relationship?

In the past two decades historians appear to have reached a consensus that studying the past exclusively from the perspective of the nation state has limitations. This critical historiographical development has featured the emergence of new works aimed at overcoming "methodological nationalism" through a range of different angles and analytical frameworks, such as comparative history, transnational history and global history. This article focuses on a new genre within this tendency to move beyond the national framework, namely the so-called histoires mondiales; which first appeared in France in a book edited by Patrick Boucheron. Boucheron's work has inspired similar approaches from scholars in Italy and Spain as a new formula to rethink national histories. While acknowledging the contributions that such histoires mondiales have made to the field, the following pages will point to some drawbacks and limitations, and propose some alternatives based on global history. These considerations contribute to a new debate that seeks to unsettle the national perspective that still looms over mainstream Spanish historiography.