{"id":377,"date":"2016-02-08T11:58:28","date_gmt":"2016-02-08T11:58:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/doing\/?p=377"},"modified":"2016-02-08T13:54:53","modified_gmt":"2016-02-08T13:54:53","slug":"unconventional-approaches-to-understanding-american-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/doing\/2016\/02\/08\/unconventional-approaches-to-understanding-american-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Unconventional Approaches to Understanding American History"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ian Tyrrell\u2019s Transnational Nation. United States History in Global Perspective Since 1789 <\/em>is an\u00a0innovative study regarding the connections and interchange between the US and the rest of the world during America’s process of development and expansion. It is easy to generalize and look to conventional relationships in America\u2019s past to explain the country’s progression but Tyrrell’s transnational approach uncovers hidden connections and links that present us with a vastly improved narrative.<\/p>\n

In studying America as a whole, the issue of focusing on and using the nation arises.\u00a0As we debated in class last week, the role of the nation in a transnational approach to history is in question. While looking at histories from a national approach might constrain historians into conventional boxes, realistically nations are the driving force of our world and have been for the greater part of the modern period. Tyrrell\u2019s explaination of the nation\u2019s role in transnational history is a comprise between solely national and borderless. While he recognizes issues that society faces are blended and blurred across national borders, the retained sovereignty of a nation dictates substantial elements of identity and policy that we must seek to understand. In his perspective, we should not discount a national approach because a nation and its identity and culture, is inherently created out of transnational factors. This method forces us to investigate the connections behind a nation and will possibly provide a better understanding of the nation-states have inclinations towards or differences against one another.<\/p>\n

Tyrrell’s books periodizes American History into four stages of expansion and progress. These division retain chronologically conventional, but the connections studied within the sections demonstrate a vast stretch across political, economic, and socially studies. \u00a0In the chapters I read, there is vivid narrative of lesser known driving forces and connections in America’s history. The intricate relationships between America, both regionally and national, and parts of South American, Europe, and Asia create a map of links spanning across the globe. Because he focuses on so many captivating stories, it leaves us to question how many more hidden relationships are there in our past, connecting Americans to the various corners of the globe.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>One of the most interesting factors in discussing America’s expansion touched on a transnational approach to racism and exclusivity during the 18th<\/sup> and 19th<\/sup> centuries. Looking first at Native Americans, Tyrrell focuses on elements of the controversial topic through transnational connections. While this is in no way a justification, it provides a objective narrative that helps uncover the\u00a0true motives of pushing west and persecuting native people as a way to\u00a0eliminate European threats. Similarly, parts of the book\u00a0\u00a0deal with the transnational connections tied to promoting or abolishing southern slavery. Tyrrell introduces connections between American slavery and the Haitian Revolution, French Revolution, English emancipation of slaves, and Revolutions of 1848. The vast amounts of connections that tie slavery to Prussian suffrage or English commerce dictate how Transnational History can expose a nation’s history, identity and culture from unconventional and limitless starting points.<\/p>\n

Overall, the sections of Tyrrell’s book were extremely enthralling and informative in explaining unconventional connections that heavily developed America’s history. I would be very interested in reading the remainder of the book and learning how the flow of influence and culture continuously shifts to and away from America. While becoming more aware of Transnational History and its limitless possibilities, this book was successful in illuminating the benefit of a transnational approach by focusing on numerous hidden connections of America’s past.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ian Tyrrell\u2019s Transnational Nation. United States History in Global Perspective Since 1789 is an\u00a0innovative study regarding the connections and interchange between the US and the rest of the world during America’s process of development and expansion. It is easy to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"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":[100,101,103,102],"class_list":["post-377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-american-history","tag-expansion","tag-interchange","tag-racism"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5wNtZ-65","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/doing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377","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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/doing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=377"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/doing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":394,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/doing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377\/revisions\/394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/doing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/doing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/doing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}