Editing World history (field) (section)

===Rankean historical positivism===
The roots of [[historiography]] in the 19th century are bound up with the concept that history written with a strong connection to the [[primary source]]s could [[Research|be integrated]] with "the big picture", i.e. to a general, universal history. For example, [[Leopold von Ranke]], probably the pre-eminent historian of the 19th century, founder of '''Rankean historical positivism'''<!--boldface per WP:R#PLA-->,{{sfn|Meer |2011|page=4}} the classic mode of historiography that now stands against [[postmodernism]], attempted to write a Universal History at the close of his career. The works of world historians [[Oswald Spengler]] and [[Arnold J. Toynbee]] are examples of attempts to integrate primary [[Source text|source-based]] history and Universal History. Spengler's work is more general; Toynbee created a theory that would allow the study of "civilizations" to proceed with integration of [[Recorded history|source-based history writing]] and Universal History writing.{{sfn|Yerxa|2009|page=1ff}} Both writers attempted to incorporate [[teleology|teleological theories]] into general presentations of the history. Toynbee found as the ''telos'' (''goal'') of universal history the emergence of a single [[World State]].