Serial Number: http://www.riss.kr.proxy.cau.ac.kr/link?id=A106644326

Title: ‘History Manifesto’ for the Future and Big-history

Author: Kim Gi-Bong

Journal:  KThe Western History Review

Vol: (144)

Pages: 226-255

Date: 2020.

Register Information: KCI

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<Abstract>

In the middle of the turmoil of COVID-19, the purpose of this paper was to rethink “what is history?” and seek a Big-history model on behalf of the sustainability of human civilization. The COVID-19 cases will eventually come to an end. However, the fight between viruses and humans will not be over; instead, it will become more advanced like a battle of contradictions between the sword and the shield(矛盾) and will turn into a larger invisible war. Science is not conquering the virus, but helping its evolution. Why does this paradox occur, and where does the dialectic of such contradictions lead the civilization of mankind to? In 2014, American historians Jo Guldi and David Amitage declared the “History Manifesto” that to answer the major questions faced by humans in the 21st century, history should move away from short-termism and return to the lougue-durée providing future prospects. Big-history is a project seeking to render a comprehensive perspective that depicts the process from the Big Bang to the present and looks forward to the future asking major questions about human history. However, the current Big-history has the inherent problem of embracing too much scientific knowledge and too little human storytelling. This paper argues for a “humanistic turn” of Big-history, and urges the historians to embrace Big-history as an area of history.