Bose and Conrad: Transnational History

The chapters from Bose’s A Hundred Horizons and from Conrad’s Globalisation and the nation in Imperial Germany emphasise the need for transnational history. Bose looks beyond a specific nation or empire and instead looks at the networks of the Indian Ocean in the mid-nineteenth to mid-twentieth centuries and the circulations of Indian migration and the trade in the region. This focus on a specific network allows Bose to highlight the continuation of connections existing prior to the colonial era and also to draw together cases from different empires which might otherwise be studied in relation the empire with which they were associated. Bose’s focus on migrants, occasionally at the level of individuals, allows for a history of experience. Conrad’s work like more traditional histories relates to a specific nation: Germany but is transnational in the way that its narrative emphasises the importance of circulations beyond the level of the national. The work contributes to the understanding of nationalism. While discussions on the origins of nationalism have prioritised external factors, discussions on the course of nationalism have often resembled national histories through using narratives of ‘internal trajectories’. Instead Conrad describes how migration was an important factor in shaping German nationalism at the turn of the twentieth century. Conrad’s ideas are interesting in their relation to concepts of globalization which is often a driving force behind the writing of global and transnational histories. Firstly, while Conrad notes the importance of globalization and it application to the period he discusses as well as the contemporary, he does not situate the events he describes on a linear narrative of increasing globalization but, instead sees them as relevant to the current period because both are episodes of intense globalization. Secondly Conrad describes events which exemplify how globalization and processes associated with it such as ‘mass mobility’ can in fact lead to fragmentation with more definite ideas of nationality and stronger national borders.