Comparative history

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Historical Comparisons and Connections at the AHA: By Andre Gunder Frank, 27 October 1996. Frank regrets the fixation on comparative [diachronic] history at the expense of connections [synchronic] in world history. Reflects historians’ unsucessful effort to represent world history as process.
The Unfinished Revolution: By Boris Kagarlitsky, 27 October 1997. Nice example of comparative history: Argues the Jacobin and Russian Revolution had a comparable role in the contradictory process of modern [European bourgeois] history, and our understanding of them helps define our task for the future.
US: a disputed history of identity: By Edward W. Said, Le Monde diplomatique September 2004. Argues that in general, cultures are contested. Example of the U.S., where cultural identity has been particularly fluid.
Trying to evaluate civilizations: By Haines Brown, contribution to a dialog, 24 October 2004. Argues that evaluation of cultures in terms of their relative superiority is impossible.
Reaching across cultural divides: By Haines Brown, contribution to a dialog, 5 July 2005. Argues that there are inevitable cultural barriers bocking mutual intelligibility, but being in a universal class (working class), opens a potential for cross-cultural communications.