Beyond Nations: Evolving Homelands in the North Atlantic World, 1400-2000

by John R. Chavez

Overview

Beyond Nations traces the evolution of “peripheral” ethnic homelands around the North Atlantic, from before transoceanic contact to their current standing in the world political system. For example, “Megumaage,” homeland of the Micmac is transformed into the French colony of Acadia, then into the British colony of Nova Scotia, and subsequently into the present Canadian province. Centrally, Professor Chávez tracks the role of colonialism in the transformation of such lands, but especially the part played by federalism in moving beyond the ethnic and racial conflicts resulting from imperialism. Significantly, Chávez gives attention to the effects of these processes on the individual mind, arguing that historically federalism has permitted the individual to sustain and balance varying ethnic loyalties regionally, nationally, and globally. Beyond Nations concludes with a discussion of an evolving global imagination that takes into account migrations, borderlands, and transnational communities in an increasingly postcolonial and postnational world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521516679
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	06/29/2009
Pages:	308
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

John R. Chávez is currently Professor of History at Southern Methodist University. He is the author of The Lost Land: The Chicano Image of the Southwest (1984), which earned him a Pulitzer Prize nomination. Among his other works are Memories and Migrations: Mapping Boricua and Chicana Histories, (2008), which he co-edited with Vicki Ruiz, and Eastside Landmark: A History of the East Los Angeles Community Union (1998).

Table of Contents

Introduction: images of concentric community; 1. Native American images of community - evolving homelands; 2. Visions of homeland in Europe and Africa - changing communities; 3. Designs for transatlantic empire - the colonial era, 1400–1700; 4. Envisioning nations - incorporation of independences, 1700–1820; 5. Conceiving federations - national development, 1820-1880; 6. Imperial designs revived - the second colonial era, 1880–1945; 7. Postcolonial visions - internationalism and decolonization, 1945–1975; 8. Supranational conceptions - continental confederations, 1975–2000; Conclusion: postnational visions - imagined federalisms.

Editorial Reviews

Beyond Nations is an important contribution to historical, sociological, political, and economic literatures on the Atlantic economy, on trade, colonialism, decolonization, neocolonialism, and internal colonialism. As the title suggests, it adds dimensions beyond individual states and beyond empires. Thus, this lucidly written book is a valuable addition to the burgeoning literature on global and world history.” – Thomas D. Hall, DePaul University

“Beyond Nations is a fascinating, important, and original work of history. Chavez’s book is a remarkable piece of pan-Atlantic history – grounded in French and Spanish as well as Anglophone scholarship – which provides, at times in great detail, the histories of less familiar islands and regions. After reading his work, many scholars will find that the world looks different and that traditional narratives of Atlantic history have begun to look rather stale and insufficiently complex. This will be a major book in the field.” – Colin Kidd, University of Glasgow

“John Chavez’s book is an enormously ambitious treatment of native homelands around the Atlantic Ocean written by a uniquely qualified scholar who has wrestled with the issue of the origins and evolution of homelands for perhaps two decades. This book builds on his previous work and constitutes a grand new distillation and synthesis. The result is impressive in its scope and the ambition of the scholarship behind it.” – Andres Resendez, University of California, Davis

"This is a major contribution to studies of nations, nationalism, and global history and rates alongside Bouchard's Making of the Nations and Cultures of the New World as one of the most important books I have read this year, and one that will I am sure have a significant impact on my academic work to come." -Malcolm MacLean, Visual Bookshelf in Facebook

"Chávez offers a new view of the Atlantic world, one of many peoples struggling to define their home and identity within regions, nation-states, and empires that changed considerably over time. Instead of writing a historical narrative that describes and explains the development of nation-states, Chávez offers a narrative that tracks the fortunes of imperialism and federation as forces which have shaped the Atlantic world."." -Catherine Styer, H-Albion

"Overall, Chavez's complex and multidimensional narrative analysis is an interesting contribution to studies of not only imperialism and nationalism, but also international politics, gender, economics, migration, and race." -Lisa M. Edwards, World History Connected

From the Publisher