Transpacific Visions: Connected Histories of the Pacific across North and South

(Hardback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

This book argues that transpacific history cannot be comprehended without including vertical connections; namely, those between the southern hemisphere and the northern hemisphere. It explores such connections by uncovering small histories of ordinary peoples attempts at vnements which they undertake by means of uneven, unlevel, and multidirectional mobilities. In this way, this book goes beyond the usual notion of transpacific history as a matter of Northern Hemisphere-centric connections between the United States and Asian countries, and enables us to imagine a transpacific space as a more dynamic and multi-faceted world of human mobilities and connections. In this book, both eminent and burgeoning historians uncover the stories of little-known, myriad encounters in various parts of the Asia-Pacific region. By exploring cases whose actors include soldiers, missionaries, colonial administrators, journalists, essayists, and artists, the book highlights the significance of "vertical" perspectives in understanding complex histories of the region.

Reviews

Richly researched and subtly theorized, this multidisciplinary collection provides fresh and original perspectives on Transpacific connections and relationships.

This study of cross-hemispheric north-south connectedness presents a refreshingly new vision of the Asia-Pacific. Nine extremely well-documented and detailed micro-histories provide insight into the cacophonous and multi-layered entanglements that constitute the Transpacific as contested and alternative spatiality of the Asia-Pacific. The mobility lens is a powerful key to unlock the betwixt and between niches of transnational history, putting human encounters in science, religion, arts, military, and trade at the center of academic inquiry to capture the richness but too often unattended diversity of local responses to global dynamics. The book provides challenging questions to grand theories and will stimulate debates among scholars and students of modern history, transnationalism, mobility studies, and area studies.

Author Bio

Yasuko Hassall Kobayashi is associate professor in the College of Global Liberal Arts at Ritsumeikan University.

Shinnosuke Takahashi is lecturer in the Asian Languages and Cultures Program at Victoria University of Wellington.