The article introduces the following papers, all of which focus on transnational history as a project, as a new category, and as a new label for historical writing and research. The author situates  transnational history at the intersection of two different historiographical approaches: cultural transfer studies on the one hand and global or new world history on the other. He discusses the consequences that arise with a transnational research agenda (as part of the cultural reaction to globalization) when discussion methods, narratives and institutional settings as well as the relationship of transnational history to the historical self-understanding of “actual” societies.