Jerry H. Bentley
Encyclopedia
University of Hawaii
The University of Hawaii System, formally the University of Hawaii and popularly known as UH, is a public, co-educational college and university system that confers associate, bachelor, master, and doctoral degrees through three university campuses, seven community college campuses, an employment...
, USA, and founding editor of the Journal of World History
Journal of World History
The Journal of World History is a refereed scholarly journal that presents historical analysis from a global point-of-view, focusing especially on forces that cross the boundaries of cultures and civilizations, including large-scale population movements, economic fluctuations, transfers of...
since 1990. He has written on the cultural history of early modern Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
and on cross-cultural interactions in world history
World History
World History, Global History or Transnational history is a field of historical study that emerged as a distinct academic field in the 1980s. It examines history from a global perspective...
. He is one of the cited experts in Annenberg Media's 2004 series of educational videos that are broadcast by satellite on the Annenberg Channel.
Biography
Bentley was born in Birmingham, AlabamaBirmingham, Alabama
Birmingham is the largest city in Alabama. The city is the county seat of Jefferson County. According to the 2010 United States Census, Birmingham had a population of 212,237. The Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Area, in estimate by the U.S...
, USA, the oldest of three boys. His father was an engineer, and his mother was a homemaker and entrepreneur. He attended Brainerd High School in Chattanooga, Tennessee
Chattanooga, Tennessee
Chattanooga is the fourth-largest city in the US state of Tennessee , with a population of 169,887. It is the seat of Hamilton County...
, and then went on to the University of Tennessee
University of Tennessee
The University of Tennessee is a public land-grant university headquartered at Knoxville, Tennessee, United States...
where he obtained a Bachelors Degree in 1971, and then his Masters (1974) and PhD (1976) from the University of Minnesota
University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities is a public research university located in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, United States. It is the oldest and largest part of the University of Minnesota system and has the fourth-largest main campus student body in the United States, with 52,557...
. Following this he began working as an Assistant Professor at the University of Hawaii in 1976. He rose to Associate Professor in 1982, and full professor in 1987. In 1990 he was the founding editor of the Journal of World History
Journal of World History
The Journal of World History is a refereed scholarly journal that presents historical analysis from a global point-of-view, focusing especially on forces that cross the boundaries of cultures and civilizations, including large-scale population movements, economic fluctuations, transfers of...
, with Elton Daniel and Daniel Kwok as editorial board members, and Herbert F. Ziegler as the book review editor. The University released a series of monographs on world history, Perspectives on the Global Past, and then became the headquarters for the World History Association. Bentley and Ziegler were also co-authors of the college-level world history textbook Traditions and Encounters which as of 2011 is in its 5th edition.http://www.hawaii.edu/history/pdf/HistoryofHistory.pdf
In 2002, Bentley became the Director at the Center for World History. http://www.hawaii.edu/history/faculty/Bentley.html
Awards
- 1987, President's Citation for Meritorious Teaching http://www.hawaii.edu/history/pdf/HistoryofHistory.pdf
- 1985, Fujio Matsuda Fellow http://www.catalog.hawaii.edu/personnel/faculty/b.htm
Research
His research on the religious, moral, and political writings of the Renaissance led to the publication of Humanists and Holy Writ: New Testament Scholarship in the Renaissance (1983) and Politics and culture in Renaissance Naples (1987). His more recent research has concentrated on global history and particularly on processes of cross-cultural interaction.His book Old World Encounters: Cross-Cultural Contacts and Exchanges in Pre-Modern Times (1993) studies processes of cultural exchange and religious conversion before modern times, and his pamphlet Shapes of World History in Twentieth-Century Scholarship (1996) discusses the historiography
Historiography
Historiography refers either to the study of the history and methodology of history as a discipline, or to a body of historical work on a specialized topic...
of world history.
His interests include processes of cross-cultural interaction and cultural exchange in modern times.
In his works, he separates time into the following periods:
- The early complex societies, 3500 to 500 BCE
- The formation of classical societies, 500 BCE to 500 CE
- The postclassical era, 500 to 1000 CE
- An age of cross-cultural interaction, 1000 to 1500 CE
- The origins of global interdependence, 1500 to 1800 CE
- An age of revolution, industry and empire, 1750 to 1914 CE
- Contemporary global realignments, 1914 to present
Works
- Journal of World HistoryJournal of World HistoryThe Journal of World History is a refereed scholarly journal that presents historical analysis from a global point-of-view, focusing especially on forces that cross the boundaries of cultures and civilizations, including large-scale population movements, economic fluctuations, transfers of...
(editor) - Humanists and Holy Writ: New Testament Scholarship in the Renaissance (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1983)
- Politics and Culture in Renaissance Naples (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1987)
- Old World Encounters: Cross-Cultural Contacts and Exchanges in Pre-Modern Times (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993)
- (with Herbert F. Ziegler) Traditions and Encounters: A Global Perspective on the Past (Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2000); second edition (Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2003)
- "Cross-Cultural Interaction and Periodization in World History," American Historical ReviewAmerican Historical ReviewThe American Historical Review is the official publication of the American Historical Association, established in 1895 "for the promotion of historical studies, the collection and preservation of historical documents and artifacts, and the dissemination of historical research." It targets readers...
101 (1996): 749-70 - "Hemispheric Integration, 500-1500 C.E.," Journal of World HistoryJournal of World HistoryThe Journal of World History is a refereed scholarly journal that presents historical analysis from a global point-of-view, focusing especially on forces that cross the boundaries of cultures and civilizations, including large-scale population movements, economic fluctuations, transfers of...
9 (1998): 237-54 - "World History," in D.R. Woolf, ed., Making History: A Global Encyclopedia of Historical Writing (New York: Garland, 1998), pp. 968–70
- "Sea and Ocean Basins as Frameworks of Historical Analysis," The Geographical ReviewGeographical ReviewThe Geographical Review is an academic journal of the American Geographical Society. Currently published quarterly in January, April, July, and October. The periodicals are devoted exclusively to geography and contain original articles on all aspects of the discipline. The "Geographical Record"...
89 (1999): 215-24 - "Shapes of World History in Twentieth-Century Scholarship," in Michael P. Adas, ed., Agricultural and Pastoral Societies in Ancient and Classical History (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2001), pp. 3–35
- "The New World History," in Lloyd Kramer and Sarah Maza, eds., A Companion to Western Historical Thought (Oxford: Blackwell, 2002), pp. 393–416
- "World History and Grand Narrative," in Benedikt Stuchtey, ed., Writing World History, 1800-2000 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), pp. xx-xx