Yale professor introduces new international approach to history

Jay Winter, Charles J. Stille Professor of History at Yale University, presented a version of history that might revolutionize the current concept of World War I.

Pens scribbled quickly in the audience as Winter introduced transnational history through memoirs Tuesday in Franklin Hall.

Winter defined transnational history as a way of approaching knowledge of historical events with global records in mind.

He said the history of an event, in this case World War I, cannot be understood entirely if it is told in only one language.

“You can do the history of national contributions in English of places like New Zealand,” he said. “But you cannot do the history of 
the war.”

He said in order to understand the history of the war, scholars must learn the accounts of the war in many different languages of many different nations....