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Introduction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 May 2022

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Summary

For good reason, the introduction to this volume of essays in honor of Patrick O’Brien must begin with the narrative of O’Brien's singular contribution to the establishment of globalization as a major field of study in the social sciences and humanities. As his LSE colleague, Tirthankar Roy, expressed it: “Patrick's biggest contribution to building global economic history as a field was to start and then lead the GEHN [Global Economic History Network] since 2002.” O’Brien's other LSE colleague, Gareth Austin, takes the narrative a little further back:

In London, global history began as an experiment and became a mission. The project began with a step which in retrospect seems modest and obvious, but at the time was innovative and even radical: the creation of a regular seminar in such a seemingly amorphous “subject” as “Global History in the Long Run.” This was convened (under that title) at the University of London's Institute of Historical Research by the Institute's then director, Patrick O’Brien, and Alan Milward, who at that time held the chair of economic history at LSE.

The first meeting of the seminar was held in February 1996, during which O’Brien stated the focus of the Institute's seminar series “not as research, but as a conversation among specialists in different fields.” With funding from the Renaissance Trust, O’Brien led the seminar series at the Institute of Historical Research until his retirement as the convener in 2000. Following his retirement from the Institute, he was immediately recruited by LSE, where the inspiration from the seminar conversations he led had given rise to the establishment of the first graduate teaching program in global history in the United Kingdom (M. Sc in Global History). The first students were admitted to the program in 2000, just as O’Brien was transitioning from the Institute to LSE.

Once in LSE, O’Brien expanded his focus. The first major development was the establishment of an intercontinental research network – the Global Economic History Network (GEHN). The idea of the GEHN and the leadership of its research and worldwide conference activities, all came from O’Brien, funded by a generous grant from the Leverhulme Trust in Britain. At full strength, GEHN included 49 scholars from several disciplines and with specialization in the economic histories of several parts of the world, and affiliated to universities in Britain, Holland, Italy, Germany, the United States, Turkey, India, and Japan.

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British Imperialism and Globalization, c. 1650-1960
Essays in Honour of Patrick O'Brien
, pp. 1 - 24
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
Print publication year: 2022

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