2026/02/16 by Daniel Hedinger, Nadin Heé · 1 voice
Social Sciences · Arts and Humanities · #World Systems and Global Transformations #History, Culture, and Diplomacy #Globalization and political ideologies
paper · doi:10.26014/j.comp.2025.05-06.08
openalex publication_date 2026/02/16 · openalex created_date 2026/02/17 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/11
Transimperial history is a vibrant emerging field that is rapidly maturing. However, for it to be-come a distinct approach, it requires more than just momentum; it needs its own method-ology—something transimperial history is still lacking. This article proposes the transimperialprism as an analytic tool to address this gap. A prism refracts the seemingly uniform narrativesof single empires into a spectrum of shared practices, revealing how empires were inextricablylinked through connectivity, cooperation, and competition. It centers mechanisms of powerover “flows” and rethinks historical directionality, rejecting teleological narratives of globaliza-tion. Addressing the question of whether transimperial history is “the new global,” we arguethat it is not a replacement but a necessary complement responding to the current “crisis of theglobal” and the resurgence of imperial thinking.