Gagandeep S. Sood received his doctorate in history from Yale University. Before arriving at the LSE, he held research and teaching positions at the University of Cambridge, the European University Institute and Yale University.
Dr Sood’s main research interests lie in the Middle East and South Asia between the 17th and 19th centuries. He is also interested in Europe, China and India, and their role in the genesis of the modern world.
Expertise
Mughal Empire; Ottoman Empire; Early Modern Globalisation; Transition to Colonialism in the Middle East and South Asia
Publications
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Teaching
Dr Sood usually teaches the following courses in the Department:
Dr Sood was interviewed by MSc Alumnus in History of International Relations (2019) Shane McLorrain for his Tocqueville 21 podcast. In their 2-part interview, they discussed Francis Fukuyama’s notion of the End of History and the nature of the field of Global History. Listen to part 1 and part 2.
Journal of Global History
Recently named Co-Editor of the Journal of Global History, Dr Sood’s co-authored piece, ‘Editors’ Note – Global History after the Great Divergence’ introduces the new editorial team’s vision for the journal. This note contains an important statement about global history as a field and the role of the journal within it. The Journal of Global History publishes high-quality articles which circulate widely, frequently making signal contributions to the historiography. Read more
2018
New essay in History Today
Dr Sood has published a new essay in History Today (vol. 68, no. 2, Feb. 2018) entitled ‘A World Revealed’. Based on research undertaken for his book India and the Islamic Heartlands: An Eighteenth-Century World of Circulation and Exchange (Cambridge University Press, 2016), the essay is intended to appeal to a broad audience of students, teachers and aficionados interested in extra-Western, pre-modern history. It focuses on a regional world from the mid-18th century, spanning the Middle East and South Asia, and populated by a kaleidoscope of "ordinary" people. That particular moment was one "of remarkable changes, politically, intellectually, culturally, economically and demographically; it was a moment of unscripted possibilities", writes Dr Sood. The regional world was of considerable historical significance at the time, but it soon thereafter vanished and was subsequently forgotten. This essay aims to recapture that vanished, forgotten world in the manner of a detective story, and what is revealed is, in many ways, unexpected.
2016
New Book Out Now
Dr Sood's new book, India and the Islamic Heartlands: An Eighteenth-Century World of Circulation and Exchange, was published by Cambridge University Press on 31 March 2016. Based on the chance survival of a remarkable cache of documents, India and the Islamic Heartlands recaptures a vanished and forgotten world from the eighteenth century spanning much of today's Middle East and South Asia. The book helps us better understand the region during a pivotal moment in its history, and offers new answers to old questions concerning early modern Eurasia and its transition to colonialism. Read more about about the book on CUP's website. Order it on Amazon.
