History and Nation

Why does history traditionally divide the past along national, continental, and oceanic lines? Understanding some of the methods historians have used to analyze the past, and understanding the particular relationship between ‘history’ and ‘nation,’ seems crucial at this time of increasing globalization, and of new notions ‘nation building.’ The essays in this volume reflect upon the activity of historians when they consider the relationship between history and nation, and they explore how early modern historians have envisioned and theorized their own actions and impact. What are the conceptual tools historians use to investigate the history of nations? What is the political and ideological content of these tools? What role does language play in historical and cultural understanding? And what force does translation exert on the status of historical evidence? History and Nation explores such questions in a new consideration of historiography and methodology at a time when the concepts of both ‘history’ and ‘nation’ are in transition.