Historicizing the Nation: Transnational Approaches to the Recent European Past

Abstract

Historians of modern and contemporary Europe are currently engaged in a ‘transnational turn,’ an attempt to move beyond the nation-state as the primary unit of analysis. This move has served to expose the central role that nationhood has played and continues to play in the writing of modern European history. Since the founding of the discipline, professional historians have contributed to the construction and perpetuation of national narratives and in many cases have been active participants in nationalizing projects. Even critical historians seeking to challenge nationalist historiographies have often invoked a ‘methodological nationalism’ that neglects many topics that cannot be encompassed by the national framework (Wimmer and Schiller 2003, 577–8). The ‘transnational turn’ thus has particular significance for historians as their discipline has arguably had a greater investment than most in national frameworks and the shaping of national imaginaries.