Reframing the Age of Revolutions

大约1750年到1850年的“革命时代”是许多不同类型的历史学家的中心概念。我们在科学史、文化史、政治史和经济史上都听到过关于它的记载;许多人指出它的影响力遍及全球，在印度洋、太平洋、中东以及我们更熟悉的欧洲和北大西洋地区都发现了一个“革命时代”。“时代”也具有广泛的当代意义：我们今天面临的核心问题，从气候变化到民族主义，都在其革命性的转变中找到了起源点，而一个重大但无计划且往往混乱的变化时期的概念与当前的动荡时刻产生了共鸣。然而，自从“革命时代”的概念在20世纪60年代由埃里克·霍布斯鲍姆和R。R.帕默，很少有人重新审视我们所说的历史框架。该项目将汇集不同分支学科的历史学家，以及今天面临类似挑战的民间社会活动家和非政府组织代表。通过他们对这个革命时代的不同视角之间的对话，我们将努力建立一套新的框架。什么叫“革命性”的变化？我们是应该说1750-1850年的地球仪是全球的“革命时代”，还是其中的特定地区？在思想史、科学史、政治史或工业史上是否也有“革命性”的发展？我们对话的结果将提供给学术界、活动家和更广泛的公众，开启更广泛的公众讨论，探讨我们应该如何理解世界历史上的这一关键时刻。

The 'age of revolutions' of about 1750 to 1850 is a central concept for many different kinds of historians. We hear references to it in histories of science and culture as well as politics and economics; many point to its global reach, discovering an 'age of revolutions' in the Indian Ocean, the Pacific, or the Middle East, as well as the more familiar Europe and North Atlantic spheres. The 'age' has a broad contemporary relevance, too: central problems we face today, from climate change to nationalism, find origin-points in its revolutionary transformations, and the very notion of a period of major but unplanned and often chaotic change strikes a chord with the present unsettled moment. Yet since the concept of an 'age of revolutions' was first popularised in the 1960s by Eric Hobsbawm and R. R. Palmer, there has been little re-examination of what we mean by it as a historical framing. This project will bring together historians across different subdisciplines with civil society activists and NGO representatives facing similar challenges today. Through dialogue between their different angles of approach to this revolutionary age, we will work towards a new set of framings. What does it mean to call a change 'revolutionary'? Should we speak of an 'age of revolutions' across the globe in 1750-1850, or in particular regions of it? Were there 'revolutionary' developments in the histories of thought and science as well as in politics or industry? The results of our conversations will be made available to academic, activist, and wider publics, opening up broader public discussions on how we should understand this crucial moment in world history.