Transnational nation : United States history in global perspective since 1789

US history is increasingly being studied in a global context, and no study of world history or transnational history can fail to take into account the impact of the US. This essential volume challenges the tendency to see the US as a product of mainly internal political and economic forces which stress American difference from the larger world. Covering the period from 1789 to the time of 9/11 and its aftermath, Ian Tyrrell argues that the shaping of the United States was part of wider economic, social, cultural and political processes, such as: - political democracy - reform movements - economic development - migration - the rise of the nation state - American cultural expansion abroad - imperialism - the dramatic impacts of war and revolutions. Tyrrell explains that the US did not grow in isolation from the forces of globalization and other transnational pressures; rather, the nation has had an uneasy relationship with the rest of the world, in which key movements and institutions promoted globalizing processes while, at the same time, preserving and developing American distinctiveness. Examining the contemporary legacy of these enduring tensions for post-war America, this stimulating study offers readers a fresh, comparative perspective on the relationship between events and movements in the US and wider world.