As I have mentioned before, one of my exam fields for the PhD was “Transatlantic History in the Long 19th Century.”  During my exams, I had the opportunity (and it really was an opportunity) to discuss how and why this topic constitutes a field.  I thought our readers here might also be interested in discussing that question. To get the conversation going, I have excerpted below a few chunks of prose from my qualifying exam answer.  I would probably say a few things differently here if I had to do it over again.  But that would require doing it over Read more