The Limits of Transnationalism

by Nancy L. Green

Transnationalism means many things to many people, from crossing physical borders to crossing intellectual ones. The Limits of Transnationalism reassesses the overly optimistic narratives often associated with this malleable term, revealing both the metaphorical and very real obstacles for transnational mobility. Nancy L. Green begins her wide-ranging examination with the story of Frank Gueydan, an early twentieth-century American convicted of manufacturing fake wine in France who complained bitterly that he was neither able to get a fair trial there nor to enlist the help of US officials. Gueydan’s predicament opens the door for a series of inquiries into the past twenty-five years of transnational scholarship, raising questions about the weaknesses of global networks and the slippery nature of citizenship ties for those who try to live transnational lives. The Limits of Transnationalism serves as a cogent reminder of this topic’s complexity, calling for greater attention to be paid to the many bumps in the road. 

Genres: Politics

227 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 21, 2019

Reviews

[Paul Cornelius · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this monograph, Nancy L. Green expands on her earlier work on citizenship and expatriation. Here, she folds those terms under the umbrella of transnationalism. For her, the term alludes to the role emigrants play in "circulating" influence, finance, and culture between their home and destination countries. Green goes on to note that transnationalism has gained a special currency among anthropologists and sociologists, especially since the 1990s. Now, she also argues, historians should examine the roots of the term, whose operation actually can be seen early on throughout nineteenth and early twentieth century immigration to the United States. Yet the particular value of this book is the look it gives at American emigrants/expatriates/expats in the first four decades of the twentieth century. Green writes clearly and concisely. Her arguments seem tight and convincing. Still, there are some problems, in my view.

Where Limits of Transnationalism fails is in its limited perspective. Primarily, Green looks at transatlantic migration and flows of people. Culturally, for example, she points to Paris in the 1920s, the site of Hemingway, Stein, and other American expatriates who generated an iconic image of the American living abroad. Beyond them, her study focuses on other individuals, perhaps not so notable, but also residing in France. Why no focus on American expatriates in East Asia and the South Pacific at the same time? Pearl Buck, as another example, was born to American missionaries to China and herself won a Nobel Prize in literature for a novel about China. Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall settled in Tahiti after World War I and wrote adventure novels and historical fiction such as Mutiny on the Bounty that created something akin to a Tahiti Syndrome among Americans. A writer such as Frederick O'Brien enjoyed tremendous success with his travel writing about the South Pacific during the post World War I years, although he has become utterly forgotten today. Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack not only sailed around Polynesia but went to Siam to make the film, Chang, which became a prototype for foreign adventure and eventually led to the production of King Kong. The list is not endless but it certainly is much lengthier than most would initially think. Just to get an idea, read Paul French's recent books on Peking and Shanghai during the 1920s and 1930s, where not only Americans but Europeans of various nationalities made significant imprints on China which were recycled in a "transnational" way back to the United States.

So that is my criticism. Green simply didn't write a big enough book. I wish she had. Maybe she will. An application of her ideas spanning American expatriation not only in Europe and Asia but Central and South America would seem to me highly productive and important.

[Nicole]

My review will be appearing in the Journal of American History.