The process of developing my project around the theme of Prohibition bootlegging on the Michigan-Ontario border has proved a challenging one. The wealth of primary and secondary sources which I have found has made it increasingly difficult to find a
The Agency of the Individual
When examining history in the context of nation-states interacting with nation-states, it is often easy, and sometimes inevitable, that we lose sight of the role of individuals. Even if individuals are considered, it is difficult to imagine them as individual
Actors and networks- rethinking space and time
The concept of networks in transnational history is potentially a very powerful one; they can elucidate exactly why certain phenomena developed, and why in specific spaces, both socially and geographically. Human connections have often connected geographically independent regions or individuals
Personal Interactions: The Perfect Starting Point for Studying Networks (or a Historian’s Worst Nightmare)?
In her article we read back in Week 1, Patricia Clavin states that transnational history is “first and foremost about the people.” This might be stating the obvious, but it is a useful quote to keep in mind when looking
Researching the project
Researching Ghadar has involved using a range of different source bases. In addition to published memoirs and collections of official documents – available through inter-library loan – I have consulted contemporary newspapers online through the library subscription to the ProQuest
Scale and Scope in Transnational History
It is clear from the literature on the topic that the level of detail in an article or book is an important consideration in the writing of transnational history. The two examples of transnational history that we read this week,
Space and Scale within Microhistory
Critics of transnational history seem to attribute the term as a buzzword, a fad occurring within the historical discipline. Despite the opinions of its proponents and opponents, both would agree that transnational history is by no means new. Its rise
Microhistory – The enticing potential & the great challenge
Our discussion this morning centred heavily on pinpointing the value of microhistory, with close reference to the article “A Chinese Farmer, Two African Boys; and a Warlord” by Tonio Andrade, and Heather Streets-Salter’s “The Local was Global: The Singapore Mutiny
Micro History, Global History, Narrative and the Transnational Perspective
Since its heyday in the 1970s and 80s, cresting the waves of Ginzburg’s breakthrough tale of cheese and worms, micro history has remained both a popular and yet controversial methodology. However, in a field such as global history, micro history
Doing Microhistory in a Global world
Transnational history and Global history have commonly been mistaken as the same thing; this they are not, but it is important to consider their shared suspicion of monocausal and unilinear macro-explanations. Great strides have been made in building powerful, complex
Project Proposal
It is my assertion that looking at the exchange and discourse between European art, with an emphasis on French and German artists, German culture was revived. Through dOCUMENTA’s aims to regenerate the traditions of modernism and German modernist art, the
Project Proposal: The Place of the Bootlegger in the Public Sphere of the Michigan-Ontario Borderland
The cultural, political, and social changes of 1920s North America present the historian with a rich tapestry from which to draw inspiration. Rapid urbanization was accompanied by the rise of the speakeasy, the advent of jazz, and the origins of
Project Proposal- The international Ghadarite network: The role of violence in the development of a transnational organisation
On March 18th 1915, Sir Reginald Craddock delivered a speech to the Imperial Legislative Council addressing the “rapidly developing disturbances of the past few weeks”. He explicitly cited the Ghadar party: “a party of anarchists and revolutionaries, who have been
Project Proposal: The Two Celtics – A Transnational Reassessment of the Scots-Irish.
Football is inherently defined by the concept of well defined nation states. Clubs play in national leagues that feed into national teams that compete against other nations at the World Cup. Occasionally, however, clubs break this mould and appear to
Project Proposal: Neutral Moresnet as a Microcosm of Nineteenth-Century Lotharingia
In this essay, I intend to portray a transnational history of the territory of Neutral Moresnet that demonstrates its nature as being representative of wider trends taking place in the multinational region of Lotharingia. The territory of Neutral Moresnet, a