The Community of Continents

Abstract

It has often been said that the era of the nation-state is a thing of the past. It was overtaken—gradually—by globalization. This change also has made its way into the writing of history. The predominance of anti-national history—that is, a historiography that rejects the normative emphasis on the nationstate—is now a fact, at least in Europe and much of the Americas. There are more local histories that emphasize the subnational; regional histories that emphasize the supranational; international histories that emphasize the multinational; and global and universal histories that emphasize all the above. And, thanks to the teaching and scholarship of Akira Iriye, there is a recognized field of transnational history that encompasses every one of them.