The essays collected here illustrate the exciting new historical research being done by scholars at the beginning of their careers. The authors employ a variety of methodologies to answer questions and recover histories ranging from medieval European political iconography to communist women in Suharto's Indonesia. Three important themes run through the breadth and diversity of the essays: race, gender, and politics. The contributors use these familiar themes to create new lines of historical inquiry.

Disparate in topic and approach, the essays demonstrate the ways in which race, gender, and politics as analytical categories continue to provide new, critical revisions to received interpretations, particularly of politics. Further, they underscore the need to interrogate the transnational and global nature of historical developments we once understood as purely local or national. Finally, the essays illustrate the importance of both macro- and micro-studies to understanding global historical developments.