Transnational History, by Pierre-Yves Saunier

Abstract

Reviewed by : Reneo Lukic, Universite Laval, QuebecProfessor Pierre-Yves Saunier of Laval University in Canada has played a leading role in defining the field of transnational history, which has seen tremendous growth in recent years. His previous publications include The Palgrave Dictionary of Transnational History: From the Mid-19th Century to the Present Day (2009), which he co-edited with Professor Akira Iriye, and which quickly became an indispensable introduction to the study of transnational history. A few years later, Saunier published Transnational History as part of Palgrave's Theory and History series. An important and stimulating book, Transnational History has become a sort of manual of transnational history, a little vade mecum, as the author names it (12 and 141). Besides being a guide to transnational history, the book also serves as a historiographic introduction to the field, offering an overview of relevant scholarly debates and varieties of practice. The book opens with a tentative definition of transnational history, itself a much disputed issue. For Saunier, transnational history is first an approach, a perspective that underlines what works between and through units that humans have set up to organize their collective life (2). It is an approach that focuses on the interconnectedness of peoples and societies; thus, cross-national connections are at the core. Transnational history investigates the entanglements between polities, societies, and communities. Empirical research involving transnational history covers borderland studies, migrations, diasporas, human rights, and the environment among others themes. It differs from global history, which deals with the main problems of global change over time, together with the diverse histories of globalization (3). It also differs from diplomatic, or international, history, which examines the foreign relations between governments and states.Indeed, according to Saunier and other historians exploring transnational themes, history as a discipline has focused almost exclusively on nation-states and regions (area studies). For far too long, non-state actors and their international networks were left out. Transnational historians call this a nation-centred perspective on modern history. Still today nation and state are central subjects of historical investigation, and this trend will likely continue because of the centrality of nation-states in domestic politics and in international relations. The period after 1945 alone witnessed the creation of 121 of the 193 states that existed up to 2006. This proliferation of new states has generated enormous interest in the writing of national histories. Historians writing comparative, global, or transnational history often comment on this propensity for studying national histories as a kind of tyrannie du national (139). …