| Rethinking American History in a Global Age Contributor(s): Bender, Thomas (Editor) |
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ISBN: 0520230582 ISBN-13: 9780520230583 Publisher: University of California Press OUR PRICE: $31.63 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: May 2002 Annotation: "In One eloquent essay after another, some of the wisest historians of our time write American history in a grand cosmopolitan context. From the era of discovery to the present, histories that we thought we knew--of labor, of race relations, of politics, of gender relations, of diplomacy, of ethnicity--are more richly understood when causes and consequences are traced throughout the globe. One emerges invigorated, ready to welcome a new American history for a new international century."--Linda K. Kerber, author of "No Constitutional Right to Be Ladies: Women and the Obligations of Citizenship ""Rethinking American History in a Global Age is an extremely stimulating and thought-provoking collection of essays written by leading historians who offer wider contexts for illuminating the traditional themes and issues of American national history. Particularly impressive is the book's combination of caution and original, sometimes daring insights."--David Brion Davis, author of "In the Image of God: Religion, Moral Values, and Our Heritage of Slavery "For decades American historians have been urging one another to place our culture in comparative or transnational perspective. Thomas Bender's unique volume includes not only essays theorizing such efforts and essays exemplifying such work at its most successful and its most provocative, it also provides more skeptical assessments questioning whether American historians can meet the challenge of overcoming our longstanding national preoccupations. "Rethinking American History in a Global Age is an indispensable book that will shape the work of a rising generation of historians whose horizons will extend beyond our own shores."--James T.Kloppenberg, author of "The Virtues of Liberalism |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - History | United States - General - History | Historiography |
| Dewey: 973.072 |
| LCCN: 2001002388 |
| Lexile Measure: 1530 |
| Physical Information: 1.06" H x 6.04" W x 8.96" (1.28 lbs) 436 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: In rethinking and reframing the American national narrative in a wider context, the contributors to this volume ask questions about both nationalism and the discipline of history itself. The essays 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, they 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. A cast of distinguished historians from the United States and abroad 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? Rethinking American History in a Global Age advances an emerging but important conversation marked by divergent voices, many of which are represented here. The various essays explore big concepts and offer historical narratives that enrich the content and context of American history. The aim is to provide a history that more accurately reflects the dimensions of American experience and better connects the past with contemporary concerns for American identity, structures of power, and world presence. |