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A Tale of Two Rivers: The Cooks River and the Los Angeles River in Transnational and Comparative Perspective

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Transnationalism, Nationalism and Australian History

Abstract

This chapter explores transnational history’s relevance and limitations for the study of place. It examines the differences between the spatially based analysis of transnational history and the historically rather than spatially grounded practice of place-making through human emotional attachments and memories. It shows how place could be transnationally conceived, constructed, and transmitted, but also how these transnational elements of place-making were shaped and limited by the particularities of the physical environment and the succession of cultural landscapes modifications undertaken. It examines transnational transfers through a comparative history of the Cooks River in Sydney, a river where place-making has been intense, but also where transnational ideas of place and space have been routinely imported or modified, and in the similar riverscapes of the Los Angeles River, California. The chapter stresses the separate but complementary character of transnational history and comparative history.

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Tyrrell, I. (2017). A Tale of Two Rivers: The Cooks River and the Los Angeles River in Transnational and Comparative Perspective. In: Clark, A., Rees, A., Simmonds, A. (eds) Transnationalism, Nationalism and Australian History. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-5017-6_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-5017-6_2

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