美利坚殖民地史研究的帝国转向:“帝国学派”史学述评

The Imperial Turn in the Study of American Colonial History:The Historiographical Review of Imperial School

自美国革命以降,美利坚殖民地史长期囿于“国族”视域之下,成为立国前史的点缀,被矮化、边缘化,直至19世纪末,帝国学派率先借力新情势、新方法、新史料,倡导跳出国族框架,用英帝国的视域来关照美利坚殖民地史。这种带有“空间转向”的研究方法,不断渗透到其他史学流派和学科领域中,为美国史学带来新路径和新课题,在美国历史编撰史上留下浓墨重彩的一笔。

The American colonial history has been written from national framework for a long time since American Revolution, which was seen as a preparation for founding United States, and was gradually marginalized. Until the end of the 19th century, the imperial school took the new methods and new historical materials in the new situation, advocated to study the American colonial history from the perspective of the British empire. The research method of spatial turn has been continuously permeated into other historical schools and disciplines, bringing new approaches and topics to American historiography.