Passage Discussion

[noah]

Good twist on this passage!

The scale is definitely debatable, but here's what I have:

late 19th/early 20th century African American Historians perspective can be seen as:

1: transnational perspective
2: their own version of a national perspective

Here's a quick passage map:

P1: AA historians (of this period) adopted transnational perspective
P2: Reasons why (1. AA citizenship uncertain; 2. emigrationism hot topic)
P3: Other reason why
P4: AA historians actually engaged in their own version of nationalism & explanation

[yli.angela]

I was bogged down by this sentence: "This was true for several reasons, not the least of which was the necessity of doing so...were to be treated honestly."

What's the author saying?

[noah]

I was bogged down by this sentence: "This was true for several reasons, not the least of which was the necessity of doing so...were to be treated honestly."

What's the author saying?

Tricky sentence!

Here's a breakdown:

"This was true for several reasons" - it's true that A.A. historians of late 19th and early 20th centuries adopted a transnational perspective

"not the least of which" - I'm about to say an important reason:

"was the necessity of doing so if certain aspects of the history... were to be treated honestly." - if those historians wanted A.A. history to be accurately represented.

So, in summary, A.A. historians looked at A.A. history transnationally (not just focusing on U.S. history) for a bunch of reasons, and one important one was that such a perspective accurately represents that history.

That help?

[nflamel69]

Hey Noah,

is transnationalism the same perspective as the unique national building perspective? When I was reading it, I thought they were the same. But from your post, it seems you are suggesting they are different ones.

[noah]

Hey Noah,

is transnationalism the same perspective as the unique national building perspective? When I was reading it, I thought they were the same. But from your post, it seems you are suggesting they are different ones.

They're indeed different.

Transnational means including various nations, while the unique national perspective is about building up the US story, aka good old nationalism.

[ldfdsa]

I was bogged down by this sentence: "This was true for several reasons, not the least of which was the necessity of doing so...were to be treated honestly."

What's the author saying?

Tricky sentence!

Here's a breakdown:

"This was true for several reasons" - it's true that A.A. historians of late 19th and early 20th centuries adopted a transnational perspective

"not the least of which" - I'm about to say an important reason:

"was the necessity of doing so if certain aspects of the history... were to be treated honestly." - if those historians wanted A.A. history to be accurately represented.

So, in summary, A.A. historians looked at A.A. history transnationally (not just focusing on U.S. history) for a bunch of reasons, and one important one was that such a perspective accurately represents that history.

That help?

Hi, I have other thought that I am sure if it is right.

"Not the least" = "Not in the least" = not at all

So, the real meaning, I think, is if AA history were to be treated honestly, trans-perspective is not a necessity. And this is confirmed at Line 51-52. Trans-perspective is not the only perspective for AA historians.

Too much twist here.

Need some clarification. Thanks