This issue of the Journal of Global History is the first for which I have been the primary editor since becoming part of the editorial team about a year ago. I would like to take this opportunity to thank William Clarence-Smith, Ken Pomeranz, and John Chalcraft for the direction they have provided as I have eased into this role. Every journal, even a relatively new one such as JGH, has its own culture and traditions, and I already feel at home here.

Among the things that I hope to do as editor is to encourage more submissions of articles in social and cultural history, and more that involve the centuries (and indeed millennia) before 1800. Several of the articles in this issue focus on the questions of identity, representation, and the construction of difference that have been at the heart of history's cultural turn. However, they also tackle subjects that have long been central to global history, including migration, exploration, and imperialism. In this issue we decided to run a longer ‘featured review’ on a book that crosses a number of disciplinary, chronological, and regional divides; this may or may not set a precedent for the future. All of the articles, and the new featured review, encourage reflection on the process of comparison, whether that comparison is done by our subjects or ourselves as scholars.

Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks