Henry James and the United States

Henry James's decision to become a British citizen in 1915, thereby losing his U.S. citizenship, has been discussed often as part of his biography, but it has larger significance in relation to recent discussions of cosmopolitanism. Although he lived in the era of the nation state, James wrote positively about transnational characters and experiences, anticipating recent efforts by intellectuals and artists to think and live beyond the nation and challenge the rhetoric of patriotism.