Crossing Boundaries: Ethnicity, Race, and National Belonging in a Transnational World

Crossing Boundaries: Ethnicity, Race, and National Belonging in a Transnational World explores ethnic and racial nationalism within a transnational and transcultural framework in the long twentieth century (late nineteenth to early twenty-first century). The contributors to this volume examine how national solidarity and identity—with their vast array of ideological, political, intellectual, social, and ethno-racial qualities—crossed juridical, territorial, and cultural boundaries to become transnational; how they altered the ethnic and racial visions of nation-states throughout the twentieth century; and how they ultimately influenced conceptions of national belonging across the globe. Human beings live in an increasingly interconnected, transnational, global world. National economies are linked worldwide, information can be transmitted around the world in seconds, and borders are more transparent and fluid. In this process of transnational expansion, the very definition of what constitutes a nation and nationalism in many parts of the world has been expanded to include individuals from different countries, and, more importantly, members of ethno-racial communities. But crossing boundaries is not a new phenomenon. In fact, transnationalism has a long and sordid history that has not been fully appreciated. Scholars and laypeople interested in national development, ethnic nationalism, as well as world history will find Crossing Boundaries indispensable.

Table of Contents:
Introduction: Hybrid National Belonging and Identity in a Transnational World by Simon Wendt and Brian D. Behnken Chapter 1. Politics of Belonging on a Caribbean Borderland: The Colombian Islands of San Andrés and Providence by Sharika Crawford Chapter 2. "To the Reconciliation of All Dominicans": The Transnational Trials of Dominican Exiles in the Trujillo Era by Charlton Yingling Chapter 3. Mexico's American/America's Mexican: Cross-border Flows of Nationalism and Culture between the United States and Mexico by Brian D. Behnken Chapter 4. Nuestro USA?: Latino/as Making Home and Reimagining Nation in the Heartland by Marta Maria Maldonado Chapter 5. Imperial Citizenship and the Origins of South African Nationalism by Charles V. Reed Chapter 6. "An African Nation in the Western Hemisphere": The New Afrikan Independence Movement and Black Transnational Revolutionary Nationalism by Paul Karolczyk Chapter 7. Transnational Ethnic Identities and Garinagu Political Organizations in the Diaspora by Doris Garcia Chapter 8. Avoiding Vagabond Nationality: The Emergence of Ivoirité in 1990s Côte d'Ivoire by Karen Morris Chapter 9. Russians in Manchuria: From Imperial to National Identity in a Colonial and Semi-Colonial Space by Frank Grüner Chapter 10. Japan's Race War: Transnational Dimensions of the Japanese Occupation of the Philippines, 1942-1945 by David C. Earhart Chapter 11. Creating a European Constitutional Monarchy for Afghanistan: The Transnational Dynamics of Afghanistan's Constitutional Period by Kristina Benson Chapter 12. "So Tired of Playing the Parts I Had to Play": Anna May Wong and German Orientalism in the Weimar Republic by Pablo Dominguez Chapter 13. About "Thunderstorms of History" and a Society in Crisis: Transnationalizing the Study of Ethnic Nationalism in Southeastern Europe by Nenad Stefanov Chapter 14. Beyond the Straight State: On the Borderlands of Sexuality, Ethnicity, and Nation in the United States and Europe by Kevin S. Amidon

About the Author :
Brian D. Behnken is an associate professor in the Department of History and U.S. Latino/a Studies Program at Iowa State University. Simon Wendt is an assistant professor of American studies at the University of Frankfurt, Germany.

Review :
These essays document the creation, contestation, and dynamic nature of borders, belonging, and identity during the explosively transnational 20th century. Behnken (Iowa State Univ.) and Wendt (Univ. of Frankfort, Germany) add to their extensive publishing record on the modern history of race and civil rights by assembling 14 essays written by authors whose experiences fittingly cross national, ethnic, and disciplinary boundaries. The essays satisfyingly stay anchored to the overriding sociospatial/identity politics dialectic, but each ventures into its own waters enough to incite readers to explore more of the topic. Eight essays deal with Latin American and African/African American examples, while three essays concern Asia, two pieces are on Europe, and one focuses on the discursive and imagined boundaries of homosexuality. Although the essays span the globe and the century, there are many interesting subthemes that weave through the book—expanding national identity to include minority voices, reimagining the past for contemporary political control, and navigating the frontier of imagined boundaries, to name a few. Scholars and students in the social sciences with interests in transnationalism, nation building, or identity politics will find this to be a thought-provoking treat. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-level undergraduates to faculty. Crossing Boundaries is a wide-ranging volume that untangles the transnational dimensions of ethnicity, race, and national belonging. Brian Behnken and Simon Wendt have skillfully woven a collection of fine essays that demonstrate how these important aspects of modern identity are critical to understanding nation-building projects. Brian D. Behnken and Simon Wendt have given us a volume that is truly transnational in design and scope. From its conceptual discussions to its well-chosen examples spanning the entire world, Crossing Boundaries is destined to become a major work in this fast-developing field.