Commentary: Re-Orienting Asian American History through Transnational and International Scales

While transnational frameworks have been a defining characteristic of Asian American history for a long time, the essays in this forum suggest new interventions in the meanings of transnational, trans-Pacific, and international. These interventions reflect internationalist discourses in the historical discipline as a whole while illustrating the fact that no common roadmap exists for pursuing this goal. The essayists also offer some solutions to the marginalization of the field within U.S. history. By decentering the nation-state—but not rejecting it outright—the range of significant themes explored in these essays places Asian American history at the cutting edge of the transnational history that is currently reshaping national histories.