How do you adequately sum up twenty eight sophisticated contributions to a
book in a short review? You can’t – especially (and ironically) when the volume to
be considered often questions the whole idea of globalizing histories. However,
what is possible is a series of ruminations on the first part of the book as an
introduction to the kinds of questions and arguments the reader can expect from the
rest of the book. Thus, I begin with an apology to the contributors who may feel
offended that their particular contribution has only been mentioned in passing – it is
to be understood not as a form of devaluation but as a sign of the impossibility of
doing any kind of justice to a book of this kind. This is intensified by the sheer
variety of the theoretical models which now constitute cultural studies and, as will
be seen below, the very wide range of subjects that the book addresses
