Overview

Split into two volumes, The Cambridge History of Global Migrations explores the lives and evaluates the significance of mobile people from 1400 to the present. Typically viewed as a phenomenon synonymous with nineteenth century globalization, migration was ubiquitous and triggered significant social, economic, technological and cultural transformations across time. Featuring over sixty essays from experts across the field, together the volumes amplify the stories of foragers and herders, pilgrims and missionaries, merchants, slaves, captives and prisoners, wealthy and impoverished jobseekers, and refugees fleeing violence, oppression and environmental change. By evaluating the continuities and changes of migration and globalization, it reveals the long-standing power imbalance between economic elites, imperial and nation-states, and the everyday people who wished to have a say in who can be forced, encouraged, prohibited or permitted to migrate. Insightful and comprehensive, these volumes uncover the ever-present tensions of movement and immobility, and the various dynamics of globalization.