Rethinking American History in a Global Age

438 Pages·2002·2.43 MB·English

by  Thomas Bender

Rethinking American History
in a Global Age

Rethinking
American History
in a Global Age
EDITED BY
Thomas Bender
U N I V E R S I T Y O F C A L I F O R N I A
P R E S S
Berkeley LosAngeles London
UniversityofCaliforniaPress
BerkeleyandLosAngeles,California
UniversityofCaliforniaPress,Ltd.
London,England
(cid:1)2002bytheRegentsoftheUniversityofCalifornia
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
RethinkingAmericanhistoryinaglobalage/editedbyThomasBender.
p. cm.
Includesindex.
ISBN0-520-23057-4(cloth:alk.paper).—ISBN0-520-23058-2(paper:
alk.paper)
1.UnitedStates—Historiography. 2.UnitedStates—History—
Philosophy. 3.Globalization. I.Bender,Thomas.
E175.R482001
973'.07'2—dc21 2001002388
ManufacturedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Thepaperusedinthispublicationisbothacid-freeandtotallychlorine-free(TCF).Itmeets
theminimumrequirementsofANSI/NISOZ39.48-1992(R1997)(PermanenceofPaper).
CONTENTS
preface / vi
Introduction. Historians,theNation,andthePlenitudeofNarratives
ThomasBender / 1
PART I•HISTORICIZING THE NATION / 23
1. TransnationalismandtheChallengetoNationalHistories
PrasenjitDuara / 25
2. InternationalizingInternationalHistory
AkiraIriye / 47
3. WhereintheWorldIsAmerica?TheHistory
oftheUnitedStatesintheGlobalAge
CharlesBrightandMichaelGeyer / 63
PART II•NEW HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHIES
AND TEMPORALITIES / 101
4. InternationalattheCreation:EarlyModernAmericanHistory
KarenOrdahlKupperman / 103
5. HowtheWestWasOne:TheAfricanDiaspora
andtheRe-MappingofU.S.History
RobinD.G.Kelley / 123
6. TimeandRevolutioninAfricanAmerica:Temporality
andtheHistoryofAtlanticSlavery
WalterJohnson / 148
vi CONTENTS
7. BeyondtheViewfromEuro-America:Environment,SettlerSocieties,
andtheInternationalizationofAmericanHistory
IanTyrrell / 168
PART III•OPENING THE FRAME / 193
8. FromEuro-andAfro-AtlantictoPacificMigrationSystem:AComparative
MigrationApproachtoNorthAmericanHistory
DirkHoerder / 195
9. FramingU.S.History:Democracy,Nationalism,andSocialism
RobertWiebe / 236
10. AnAgeofSocialPolitics
DanielT.Rodgers / 250
11. TheAgeofGlobalPower
MarilynB.Young / 274
12. AmericanEmpireandCulturalImperialism:AViewfromtheReceivingEnd
RobKroes / 295
PART IV•THE CONSTRAINTS OF PRACTICE / 315
13. DoAmericanHistoricalNarrativesTravel?
Franc¸oisWeil / 317
14. TheModernityofAmericaandthePracticeofScholarship
WinfriedFluck / 343
15. TheExhaustionofEnclosures:ACritiqueofInternationalization
RonRobin / 367
16. TheHistorian’sUseoftheUnitedStatesandViceVersa
DavidA.Hollinger / 381
appendix. participants in the la pietra
conferences, 1997–2000 / 397
contributors / 401
index / 405
PREFACE
Modernhistoriographyisinextricablylinkedwiththemodernnation.That
connectionhasbothgivenfocustohistoricalinquiryandwonforitaplace
in civic life. But it has also been disabling, silencing stories both smaller
andlargerthanthenation.Today,atthebeginningofthetwenty-firstcen-
tury, in an era of intense discussion of multiculturalism and globalism, it
may be easier than ever before to recognize the plenitude of historical
experiencesand narratives imbricated in a national history. To historicize
thenationistorelateitsdominantnarrative,itsnationalnarrative,toother
narrativesthatrefertobothsmallerhistoriesandlargerones.Thatmeans
understanding the historical production of the nation and locating it in a
context larger than itself. That is the work of this volume. It asks a big
question and begins the work of answering it: How does one frame the
narrativeofAmericanhistoryinthecontextofaself-consciouslyglobalage?
This book is the product of a complex collaborative project; many in-
dividualsandinstitutionsthusdeservethanks.TheProjectonInternation-
alizingtheStudyofAmericanHistoryinvolvedseventy-eightscholars,both
fromtheUnitedStatesandabroad(listedintheappendix),andwasajoint
endeavorofNewYorkUniversity,throughitsInternationalCenterforAd-
vanced Studies, and the Organization of American Historians. It received
enthusiasticsupport,valuablesuggestions,andgenerousfundingfromsev-
eralfoundationsandinstitutions:TheGladysKriebelDelmasFoundation,
particularly Patricia La Balme; The Rockefeller Foundation, particularly
Lynn Szwaja and Thomas Ybarra Frausto; The Ford Foundation, particu-
larly Alison Bernstein and Toby Volkman; The Andrew W. Mellon Foun-
dation,particularlyRichardEkman;theAmericanCouncilofLearnedSo-
cieties, particularly Stanley N. Katz and Steven Wheatley; and the Faculty
vii
viii PREFACE
of Arts and Sciences at NYU, particularly Philip Furmanski, dean of the
faculty.
Holding the project’s conferences outside of the United States seemed
symbolically to make an important point about the value of stepping out-
sideofthenation,ifonlytemporarily,towriteafresheraccountofit.That
fantasybecamereal,andpleasantlyso,in1997,whenNewYorkUniversity
welcomed the first of the series of conferences to its campus in Florence,
Italy, the extraordinarily beautiful and peaceful Villa La Pietra. Surely the
consistently good spirits of the conference, even when conflicting points
of view were being proposed, owed something to the Tuscan sun, the de-
lightfulgardensofthevilla,andtheformalbutcomfortablemeetingrooms
where we spent the better part of our days. For this opportunity, I wish to
thank especially the late Debra James, vice president of New York Univer-
sity,andCeciliaGuarnacciaatLaPietraitself.
DavidThelenandLindaKerberwerequicktosupporttheideaforthis
project when I first broached it, and they helped develop the first outline
of the project, which was presented to the executive board of the Organi-
zationofAmericanHistorians.Atthetimethisprojectbegan,LindaKerber
waspresidentoftheOAH,andIwanttothankherbothforherwisecounsel
at the beginning and her diplomatic skills at other times. Two past presi-
dents and the two presidents-elect at the time of the establishment of the
project were active and helpful participants, and I wish to thank Gary B.
Nash, Eric Foner, George Fredrickson, and William H. Chafe. At the be-
ginning,ArnitaJoneswasexecutivedirectoroftheOAH,andherassistance
wasunstintingandinvaluable,aswasthatofJohnDichtlintheOAHoffice.
Atthebeginningoftheproject,IwasNYU’sdeanforthehumanities,and
my assistant, Shirley Riddell, was indispensable in getting the work under
way. At the International Center for Advanced Studies, I wish to thank
TanyaSerdiuk,whohelpedwiththelogisticsofthefirstconference;Saverio
Giovacchini, for the second; Sula Haska, for the third; and Mark Elliott,
forthefourth.
Mainly, however, I want to thank all of the participants. I have never
participatedinasingleconferencethatwassoconsistentlystimulating,let
aloneaseriesoffourconferences.Specialfieldsandapproaches,different
institutional locations and statuses, U.S. scholars and foreign scholars, re-
searchuniversityfacultyandcommunitycollegeandhighschoolteachers,
publichistorians,seniorleadersandgraduatestudentsbecameanintellec-
tual community, recognizing one another as equals at the conference ta-
ble—historians all, serious, committed, and civil. From among the very
largenumberofexcellentpaperspresentedatthevariousconferences,this
bookoffersaselectionthatcollectivelyandcoherentlyrepresentsthework
oftheproject.Buteachdiscussionandeachpaper,writteninacumulative
process,buildsuponeveryotherpaper,andIwanttothanktheauthorsof
PREFACE ix
both the papers in this book and those not included. All equally contrib-
uted to the success of the project, even if practicality dictated that only
someofthepaperscouldbepublished.
The chapters that follow do not cover all aspects of the issue of inter-
nationalizationnoralltheimportantthemesandperiodsofAmericanhis-
tory. But they do cover a great deal, addressing many of the big issues in
Americanhistoriography.Thedifferentsectionshavevaryingpurposesand
different work to do within the context of the whole volume. Parts 1 and
2arethemosttheoretical.Moreover,theyareforthemostpartstatements
of advocacy; they urge historians to consider a very different relationship
to the nation and national history. The chapters in part 3 do rather than
advocate. Put differently, they seek to exemplify the kind of history being
urgedinthisvolume.Inpart4,thereisacertainsteppingback.Ifparts1
and 2 are unreservedly promoting a new kind of history, the chapters in
part4arecautionary,urgingamoderatehistoriographicalrevolution.They
raisehardquestionsaboutstructuresandconstraintsonchange,andthey
warn against mischaracterizing traditional history and mistaking the di-
mensionsofchange.Theyreaffirmthatthepointhereisnotapostnational
historybutaricherandmorehistoricalnarrativeofthenation,moreclearly
distinguishingwhatispartofthenationalhistorybuteitherlargeorsmaller
thanthenation.
Thehistoriographicalinnovationsbeingproposedhereareincremental
and plural. The book does not advance a cut-and-burn approach to the
historiographical past. The claim I would make for the volume is that it
invitesourcolleaguestoconsideranewandimportantframing,orcontex-
tualization,forthehistoryoftheUnitedStates.Itdoesnotspecifyasingle
form for the new narratives implied by this reframing, but the ideas and
examplesitoffersoughttoprovidesufficientorientationtothosewhorec-
ognize the present opportunity, and, I would argue, obligation, to think
afresh about the relation of the narratives we present to audiences in the
UnitedStatesandabroadinourincreasinglyself-consciousglobalage.
ThomasBender