Teaching

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MO5710 Crossing borders: European History in Transnational Perspectives

Module Outline

This course focuses on late-modern European history and its historiography from the late eighteenth to the twentieth century. Questioning the impact of the nation and nation-states as well as nation-dominated narratives, the module focuses on transnational aspects and approaches including comparative history, cultural transfers and entangled history. The course reflects on the ongoing process of the Europeanization of Europe and the increasing interest in global history both of which challenge the writing of national as well as European history. The first sessions are dedicated to an introduction of the main concepts and methods currently used in the field of transnational history, such as comparison, cultural transfer or histoire croisée and will discuss their application in recent historiography. Following the introduction of approaches and methods the course then focuses on problems and challenges such as spatializing and periodizing transnational history as well as empirical examples such as the European Union, border regions or diaspora in transnational perspective.

Course Structure

 Pre sessional week: Introduction

 (I) Approaches, Tools, Debates I

1) Transnational History – Why now? Aims, Scope, Scepticism (Dr Struck)

2) Ian Tyrrell, Transnational Nation: United States History in Global Perspective since 1789 (Dr Struck) 

(II) Transnational Spaces

3) Borders and historical regions: The case of Silesia (Dr Kamusella)

4) Empires and transnational regions: The Atlantic and the Mediterranean (Dr Easterby-Smith)

 (III) Approaches, Tools, Debates II

5) From local to global – from global to local: Scales in Transnational History (Dr Ferris)

 6) Essay preparation week

 

(IV) Transnational Agents and Culture7) Global Lives (Dr Easterby-Smith)

8) Experts and networks (Drs Easterby-Smith and Struck)

9) Associations and ‘pressure groups’: The case of abolitionist movements (Dr Ferris)

OR Merchant networks (Dr Easterby Smith)

 

(IV) Transnational Moments and Periods 10) Premonitions of the European Union, 1919-1932 (Prof Fischer)

11) Periodizing Transnational History: ‘1989’ and ‘2004’ (Dr Kamusella)

 

12) Concluding debate