So, this\u00a0is the week transnational history starts to get a bit more daunting. Up until this point, we have spent the majority of our time reading the work of historians, trying to grasp an understanding of the approach\u00a0based on what they have to offer. This has left me\u00a0with a basic definition of what transnational history is and the variety of narratives it can offer. I would be lying, however, to say that I now have a firm grasp on what transnational history should be. I really don\u2019t. At the moment, it is more a collection of ideas running through my head rather than a solid definition.
\nThat\u2019s the reason why this week is such a challenge. We now finally have to pin down whatever it is we wish to explore as part of our project and sell it in a proposal of fewer than 800 words. With my own views on transnational history still quite uncertain, this is proving to be fairly difficult. From the beginning of this module I have had several ideas jump out as me as possible routes to follow towards a final project. Yet, every time I think about the ways in which I could explore these ideas in a transnational context, I end up feeling a bit lost.
\nFor example, the idea I am currently leaning towards for my project involves looking at the rise of the welfare state in Britain after the Second World War and the ways in which it was influenced by, or had influences on, other similar systems within Europe. However, this could be problematic for several reasons. My first concern is that I\u2019m inadvertently being teleological in my approach. If I explore the ways in which the welfare state came to exist, it appears nearly impossible not to create a narrative of progression from point A to B. On the one hand I obviously want to explore the transnational exchange of ideas in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries which led to welfare reforms across Europe and beyond. However, I obviously want to avoid creating a backward facing narrative. Perhaps this is an inherent problem with this particular question, or maybe in the following week I can think of a way to make this work. As of yet, I\u2019m not sure.
\nKonrad’s post about starting with sources and then working outwards from there has helped considerably with this issue, yet I still feel slightly overwhelmed whenever I think about where to start regarding sources. Of course, using primary sources to formulate ideas is refreshing to say the least. Yet, it is also incredibly daunting. Where do I find the sources I need? Are they going to be reliable? These are both questions I am going to have to take very seriously in the next few weeks, as are questions of scale \u2013 do I want to create a macro-history or a micro-history? Which will be of greater benefit to my narrative? If I do want to go down the micro-historical route, will I be able to find enough source material to do so?
\nFor the rest of this week, as I try to create an exciting project proposal, these are questions I will try and get to grips with. Perhaps in next week\u2019s blog post I will be able to share some of my conclusions with you. For now, however, I still definitely have more questions than answers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
So, this\u00a0is the week transnational history starts to get a bit more daunting. Up until this point, we have spent the majority of our time reading the work of historians, trying to grasp an understanding of the approach\u00a0based on what<\/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":[120,115,114,79,121,118,119],"class_list":["post-425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-historical-narrative","tag-macrohistory","tag-microhistory","tag-project-proposal","tag-scale","tag-sources","tag-welfare-state"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5wNtZ-6R","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/doing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425","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=425"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/doing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":468,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/doing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425\/revisions\/468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/doing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/doing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/doing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}