{"id":2891,"date":"2026-02-03T12:42:48","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T12:42:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/doing\/?p=2891"},"modified":"2026-02-03T12:42:49","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T12:42:49","slug":"week-2-blog-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/doing\/2026\/02\/03\/week-2-blog-6\/","title":{"rendered":"Week 2 Blog"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Growing up competing in geography bees, the boundaries of nations are\u00a0practically\u00a0embedded\u00a0into my brain.\u00a0Pierre-Yves Saunier, in his\u00a0book\u00a0<em>Transnational History: Theory and History,\u00a0<\/em>prompts a reevaluation of\u00a0the sheer durability and\u00a0the\u00a0supremacy of\u00a0nations as\u00a0\u2018units\u2019 of historical analysis\u00a0and\u00a0encourages historians to adjust their perspective.\u00a0In his introduction, Saunier explains the agenda,\u00a0timeframe, geography, and scope of transnational history.\u00a0He contrasts\u00a0Transnational\u00a0History\u00a0to\u00a0Comparative\u00a0History by\u00a0metaphorically referring to\u00a0\u2018comparison\u2019 as a \u2018tool\u2019.\u00a0In comparative history, comparison is\u00a0used by\u00a0historians\u00a0to\u00a0analyze and\u00a0evaluate historical courses;\u00a0whereas, in transnational history, comparison is\u00a0used\u00a0by\u00a0historical actors themselves, and the use of this\u00a0tool\u00a0in history is what transnational historians\u00a0seek\u00a0to study. \u2018Comparison\u2019 is a topic of study in and of itself, rather than a tool for studying topics.\u00a0Saunier\u2019s second chapter, \u2018Connections\u2019,\u00a0extensively references cases and examples\u00a0to illustrate the multitudinous connectors, connections, and avenues of connection that satisfy the appetite of the transnational historian.\u00a0The sheer number of examples he lists\u00a0demonstrates\u00a0the malleability of a transnational approach.\u00a0Transnational history, rather\u00a0than\u00a0its own history,\u00a0is the\u00a0adjustment of one\u2019s\u00a0perspective, enhancing the capacity of historiography\u00a0to see between\u00a0and across national borders.\u00a0It is similar to examining a topographical map instead of a political map.\u00a0One shows the color-coded polygons of various states and territories, and the other, though still displaying the titles of these areas, gives precedent to other features of the land \u2013 mountain ranges, rivers, basins. It\u00a0applies\u00a0a different lens and thus\u00a0expands\u00a0one\u2019s understanding of a region. Transnational history gives historians access to a myriad of different lenses.\u00a0Sometimes a topographical map is not useful.\u00a0Likewise,\u00a0sometimes a political map is not useful. Each helps us to see different things.\u00a0Recently, a friend of mine prompted me to revisit an essay by David Foster Wallace,\u00a0<em>This\u00a0is Water<\/em>.\u00a0In the essay,\u00a0Wallace encourages\u00a0the\u00a0adoption of\u00a0an attentive, critical,\u00a0<em>conscious<\/em>\u00a0perspective. Now this perspective is one which views life, not history. But his description of its use resonated with what I read in Saunier\u2019s excerpts.\u00a0Wallace acknowledges the likelihood that the perspective will not always be suitable to adopt in every situation, but that it has potential to be useful in every situation.\u00a0In a similar\u00a0vein,\u00a0the transnational approach\u00a0will not always be useful or applicable to each\u00a0topic but\u00a0will always have the\u00a0<em>potential<\/em>\u00a0to be so.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Growing up competing in geography bees, the boundaries of nations are\u00a0practically\u00a0embedded\u00a0into my brain.\u00a0Pierre-Yves Saunier, in his\u00a0book\u00a0Transnational History: Theory and History,\u00a0prompts a reevaluation of\u00a0the sheer durability and\u00a0the\u00a0supremacy of\u00a0nations as\u00a0\u2018units\u2019 of historical analysis\u00a0and\u00a0encourages historians to adjust their perspective.\u00a0In his introduction, Saunier explains<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":98,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5wNtZ-KD","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/doing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/doing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/doing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/doing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/98"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/doing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2891"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/doing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2891\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2892,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/doing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2891\/revisions\/2892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/doing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/doing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/doing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}