Atlantic history: emerging field or unnecessary?

by SonOfTheEternal

I want to go to grad school. My current college (also in my hometown) offers a transatlantic history masters and PhD, otherwise I’d have to go out of state for another program (which I really don’t want)

I really like Latin American history, but I’m also interested in how African cultures interacted with European/Native American populations. Honestly, Atlantic history seems to merge a lot of interesting fields without having to specialize on one region or period. That’s very appealing to me.

That being said, a lot of historians have criticized the emerging research field of “transatlantic” or “atlantic” history.

I have a background in economics and will be learning to speak French soon (already fluent and a very strong writer in both Spanish and English)

Thoughts on whether this is a worthy endeavor?

sunagainstgold

It's 2018. Atlantic history isn't emerging. It's emerged. It emerged awhile ago. It's got must-read classics, must-read classics critiquing the first set, a developed underlying theory, specialized vocabulary, discussions about whether it's useful at all, discussions about whether its theories can be applied to another unit (e.g. the Pacific), grad programs, endowed chairs, the experience of being the hot new thing, the experience of no longer being the hot new thing.

If your research interests are best suited to the methodologies and theories and goals of Atlantic history, by all means, do Atlantic history.

But be aware that to write a master's thesis or PhD, you are STILL going to specialize. You don't write your thesis on Time Immemorial Over Three Continents, you write it on "...On a South Carolina Plantation, 1800-1840" or on "in Seventeenth-Century Angola." Your specialized coursework will be focused on a set of more specific classes, likely with other gen requirements (the grad school version of a major, basically), but they won't be Time Immemorial Over Three Continents, either.

As to whether grad school is a worthy endeavour or not, that depends on other factors. Namely:

  • Why do you want to go to grad school?
  • Does the program you want to attend match your goals in attending grad school?
  • Can you afford to attend grad school? (including but not limited to whether the program offers funding)

So: why do you want to attend grad school?