Global history is increasingly becoming our common concern. This book discusses the concept of global or universal history. The field is still in its infancy and the practitioners are relatively few. Formidable tasks await the global historian, and the present volume demonstrates both the challenges and the fruitfulness of the universal approach. History has served as a positive instrument in the hands of politicians and nationbuilders. But history can also be perverted and manipulated and serve disreputable purposes. In this volume, historians give examples of the instrumental use of history-. This Commemorative Volume from the 19th International Congress of the Historical Sciences contains 24 papers. The papers are all chosen for their excellence and general appeal. This book will stimulate a more general interest in the field of global history - or universal history as some prefer to call it - and attract and fascinate new readers and practioners.