Historians are very much aware of the variety of national and international trends that have shaped historical inquiry in recent decades. Americanists, in particular, have been conscious of the growing importance of gender issues, the 'turn' to questions of language and meaning, the increasing significance of cultural matters, and a new emphasis on regional history. The 1990s, moreover, saw a major movement to internationalize approaches to American history by emphasizing comparisons with other countries and cultures. By the end of the twentieth century it was by no means clear whether...