Sanjay Subrahmanyam proposes a new land of 'connected history', spanning regions, subjects and archives that are conventionally treated individually. This is not a research paradigm, he insists. It is more a way of trying to constantly break the moulds of historical objects. Connected History illustrates the range and vivacity of Subrahmanyam's writing. Topics include the nature of an empire; the idea of India; the rise of 'the West' (less of a place than an ideology, he observes); Churchill and the Great Man theory of history; the itinerary of subaltern studies; the reception of world literature; and the literary careers and geographies of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, V. S. Naipaul and Salman Rushdie. In addition there are personal recollections of life and work in Delhi, Paris and Lisbon, and concluding thoughts on the practice of early-modern history and the imperative of going against the grain of established national historiographies. Book jacket.