Rethinking American History in a Global Age

Abstract

In rethinking and reframing the American national narrative in a wider context, the chapters in this book ask questions about both nationalism and the discipline of history itself. They offer fresh ways of thinking about the traditional themes and periods of American history. By locating the study of American history in a transnational context, the chapters examine the history of nation making and the relation of the United States to other nations and to transnational developments. What is now called globalization is here placed in a historical context. The book examines the historiographical implications of such a reframing and offers alternative interpretations of large questions of American history ranging from the era of European contact to democracy and reform, from environmental and economic development and migration experiences to issues of nationalism and identity. But the largest issue explored is basic to all histories: How does one understand, teach, and write a national history even as one recognizes that the territorial boundaries do not fully contain that history, and that within that bounded territory the society is highly differentiated, marked by multiple solidarities and identities?

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 231 citations exist upstream.