13 - Interregional studies as integrating the historical disciplines: The practical implications of an interregional orientation for scholars and for the public

Summary

It will have become evident in the course of this whole study that an interregional historical outlook is long overdue and must have far-reaching effects. If it is true that interregional history lies at the heart of the mission of the historical profession as a whole, its pursuit will be important not only for itself, but for all branches of historical study. In any case, a better orientation in it has implications for a still wider circle – that of the lay public (for whom in any case historians labor). It will not be amiss to stress certain aspects of the practical implications of the Western world image which have only partially been brought out hitherto, and then to suggest means of introducing a truer interregional perspective into the profession and thence to the public at large.

The want of an adequate basis for interregional perspective cannot be completely filled through tracing the development of the Oikoumenic configuration. Nevertheless, this can contribute to making it easier to gain that perspective in general, and so to an improvement in all the many cases where that want makes itself felt. I hope that the sheer massing of examples in which such a perspective is wanting will have underlined its urgency – examples both old and new, for though some of the blatancy of the old is no longer in fashion, it serves to remind us of the attitudes underlying much thinking that we still take for granted, and which must be consciously uprooted if it is not to continue subtly affecting us.