Transatlantic Transitions

Book excerpt: With North Atlantic post-World War II transatlantic dynamics as the subject, this volume inquires if its theoretical tenets hold in other epochs and Atlantic arenas. Both case and comparative studies of such historical cases as the silver, slave, and commodity trades, and whether ideas, such as faith and democracy, have as much impact as these merchandise flows, simultaneously challenge and strengthen the transatlantic paradigm. They permit transatlantic relations to be stretched as far back as to the 8th Century, in turn exposing transatlantic flows hugging global threads, while revealing the strength and size of several unaccounted types of transatlantic transactions, such as the north-south varieties.