Writing History in the Anthropocene: Scaling, Accountability, and Accumulation

Abstract

We introduce three topics that characterize research in and of the Anthropocene: terrestrial scales (temporal, systemic, and spatial); accountability within and beyond the social, cultural, and political realms of human interaction; and the unprecedented accumulation and redistribution of earth matter. Historians are well equipped to both explain social change and expose the historicity of concepts, institutions, individual or collective routines, and experiences. Considering this double interest, along with the methodological renewals of their discipline, historians are able to historicize the terrestrial environment and expose geological and ecological causalities across all scales without losing sight of human dimensions and responsibilities.