Diminishing Returns of a Turn? Transnational and Global History, 10 Years On

In 2006, the AHR published the first in what would become a series of ‘conversations’ on different topics and approaches to history, this one on transnational history. This paper asks about the state of the ‘field’ ten years on by highlighting some of the contributions made by transnational histories but also, their shortcomings. Through concrete examples drawn from historical research, a number of problems are addressed as particularly central to the writing of transnational and global history: questions of scale; archives; and the role of the nation-state, nationalism, and regionalization as opposed to border-crossing flows, connections, and movements. Has transnational history turned out to be more than a set of aspiring proclamations?