The basic premise of this volume of articles is that there is a need to
respond to the challenge issued by Jerry Bentley – one of the pioneers
of the now well-established field of ‘World History’ – for historians to
attempt both to ‘globalize history’ and to ‘historicize globalization’.
Though directed at historians, it is a challenge that raises broader questions about the interplay between the global and the local in all fields of
endeavour. While the joint editors of this volume are both historians,
the contributions are from specialists in history, political science, international relations, sociology, literature, art history and architecture, all
of whom address this issue to a greater or lesser degree with regard to
Singapore. A major aim of the contributors was to emphasise the contribution of the ‘local’ to the ‘global’.