Beyond Nations
Evolving Homelands in the North Atlantic World, 1400–2000

Beyond Nations traces the evolution of 'peripheral' ethnic homelands around the North Atlantic, from before transoceanic contact to their current standing in the world political system.

John R. Chavez (Author)

9780521516679, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 29 June 2009

308 pages, 2 b/w illus. 18 maps
23.7 x 15.8 x 2.2 cm, 0.55 kg

'John Chavez's book is an enormously ambitious treatment of native homelands around the Atlantic Ocean written by a uniquely qualified scholar who has wrestled with the issue of the origins and evolution of homelands for perhaps two decades. This book builds on his previous work and constitutes a grand new distillation and synthesis. The result is impressive in its scope and the ambition of the scholarship behind it.' Andres Resendez, University of California, Davis

Beyond Nations traces the evolution of 'peripheral' ethnic homelands around the North Atlantic, from before transoceanic contact to their current standing in the world political system. For example, 'Megumaage', homeland of the Micmac is transformed into the French colony of Acadia, then into the British colony of Nova Scotia, and subsequently into the present Canadian province. Centrally, Professor Chávez tracks the role of colonialism in the transformation of such lands, but especially the part played by federalism in moving beyond the ethnic and racial conflicts resulting from imperialism. Significantly, Chávez gives attention to the effects of these processes on the individual mind, arguing that historically federalism has permitted the individual to sustain and balance varying ethnic loyalties regionally, nationally, and globally. Beyond Nations concludes with a discussion of an evolving global imagination that takes into account migrations, borderlands, and transnational communities in an increasingly postcolonial and postnational world.

Introduction: images of concentric community
1. Native American images of community - evolving homelands
2. Visions of homeland in Europe and Africa - changing communities
3. Designs for transatlantic empire - the colonial era, 1400–1700
4. Envisioning nations - incorporation of independences, 1700–1820
5. Conceiving federations - national development, 1820-1880
6. Imperial designs revived - the second colonial era, 1880–1945
7. Postcolonial visions - internationalism and decolonization, 1945–1975
8. Supranational conceptions - continental confederations, 1975–2000
Conclusion: postnational visions - imagined federalisms.

Subject Areas: Sociology [JHB], 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW], Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900 [HBLL], Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700 [HBLH]