In his classic essay, “Trans-national America" of 1916, critic Randolph Bourne denounced the “melting-pot ideal" as undemocratic in intent and a failure in practice . But unlike cultural pluralists who defended ethnic “difference"—to use a contemporary term—Bourne made a case for a “cosmopolitan" mixing of cultures, which he witnessed emerging in American universities and the burgeoning labor movement. “Already we are living this cosmopolitan America," he wrote. “What we need is everywhere a vivid consciousness of the new ideal. Deliberate headway must be made against the survivals of the melting-pot ideal for the promise of American life.” In this seminar, Casey Blake (Columbia) will examine Bourne's argument for a “trans-national" American national identity and consider its implications for contemporary debates about ethno-racial diversity and national culture in the United States today.