SUMMARY:

This essay contains a series of observations on the emergence of transnational history as an academic enterprise and as a political practice. Choi Chatterjee uses examples from her personal life to illustrate certain global patterns that have gained prominence in the recent decades, especially since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. She has also drawn upon her experiences as a faculty member at an urban university in Los Angeles that caters to a student body that is primarily composed of immigrants and members of the working class. Chatterjee argues that transnational history is more than a version of elite cosmopolitanism; it has the capacity to unite diverse constituencies around the globe in a shared quest for self-knowledge, community building, and environmentalism.