Abstract

The article briefly traces the birth and the subsequent paths of international history and global history. In particular, it focuses on the main differences between these two sub-disciplines, focusing on the origins and developments of global history. Born in the 1990s, it is, according to the author, not just a discipline, but an «approach»: while international history, now based on a consolidated historiographical tradition, is mainly engaged with the role of states and their power politics, global history raises and poses questions. Its main topics of study, in fact, concerns labor, environmental and racial issues investigated in a long-term perspective capable of including also the XIX century.