This paper analyses to what extent, if any, global history has changed our understanding of the themes and problems of early modern history. It does so by undertaking a specific case study, that of the Journal of Global History, a periodical founded in 2006 on the initiative of a group connected to the London School of Economics and published by the Cambridge University Press. The journal is used as a lens through which to examine a number of issues: from the definition of global history to its links with other emergent historiographical perspectives (section 1); the time periods, topics and spaces on which global history has focused (section 2); and the discipline’s protagonists and sources (section 3).