In this stimulating and highly original study of the writing of American history, twenty-four scholars from eleven European countries explore the impact of writing history from abroad. Six distinguished scholars from around the world add their commentaries. Arguing that historical writing is conditioned, crucially, by the place from which it is written, this volume identifies the formative impact of a wide variety of institutional and cultural factors that are commonly overlooked. Examining how American history is written from Europe, the contributors shed light on how history is written in the United States and, indeed, on the way history is written anywhere. The innovative perspectives included in Historians across Borders are designed to reinvigorate American historiography as the rise of global and transnational history is creating a critical need to understand the impact of place on the writing and teaching of history. This book is designed for students in historiography, global and transnational history, and related courses in the United States and abroad, for US historians, and for anyone interested in how historians work.

Preface: Location and HistoryNicolas Barreyre, Michael Heale, Stephen Tuck, and Cécile VidalAcknowledgmentsPart One. Historiography1. Watersheds in Time and Place: Writing American History in EuropeMichael Heale, Sylvia Hilton, Halina Parafianowicz, Paul Schor, and Maurizio VaudagnaPart Two. Structures and Context2. Using the American Past for the Present: European Historians and the Relevance of Writing American HistoryTibor Frank, Martin Klimke, and Stephen Tuck3. Institutions, Careers, and the Many Paths of U.S. History in EuropeMax Edling, Vincent Michelot, Jörg Nagler, Sandra Scanlon, and Irmina Wawrzyczek4. Straggling Intellectual Worlds: Positionality and the Writing of American HistoryNicolas Barreyre, Manfred Berg, and Simon MiddletonPart Three. Internationalization(s) of U.S. History5. Writing American History from Europe: The Elusive Substance of the Comparative ApproachSusanna Delfino and Marcus Gräser6. American Foreign Relations in European Perspectives: Geopolitics and the Writing of History7. Location and the Conceptualization of Historical Frameworks: Early American History and Its Multiple Reconfigurations in the United States and in Europe 00Trevor Burnard and Cécile VidalPart Four. Perspectives from Elsewhere8. Positionality, Ambidexterity, and Global FramesThomas Bender9. Reflections from RussiaIvan Kurilla10. Doing U.S. History in Australia: A Comparative PerspectiveIan Tyrrell11. Viewing American History from Japan: The Potential of ComparisonNatsuki Aruga12. Not Quite at Home: Writing American History in DenmarkDavid E. Nye13. American History in the Shadow of Empire: A Plea for MarginalityFrançois FurstenbergNotesSelected BibliographyList of ContributorsIndex