A Modernist View Of National Ideals

This collection brings together scholars from a wide range of disciplines to offer perspectives on national identity formation in various European contexts between 1600 and 1815. Contributors challenge the dichotomy between modernists and traditionalists in nationalism studies through an emphasis on continuity rather than ruptures in the shaping of European nations in the period, while also offering an overview of current debates in the field and case studies on a number of topics, including literature, historiography, and cartography.

Excerpt from Ideals and Democracy: An Essay in Modernism The title of this book is its own best introduction. The theme should be of interest to all classes and conditions of people. The treatment is unpretentious, brief, informal. The reader who anticipates new and startling revelation in these pages is doomed to disappointment, but the hope is expressed that old material may appear in new relations. It is the author's purpose to recall to our minds some very common truths - plain, important, neglected - and in a somewhat uncommon manner lead us more fully to appreciate and ply certain of the great fundamental principles that lie at the base of our social structure. That the desired point of view may be brought out, and in order to present the subject in a distinctly human rather than in a purely professional manner, it has been found convenient to be simple in form of statement and to use many illustrations drawn from personal observation or experience. Any far-reaching study of the purpose and application of ideals as the basis of democracy would seem to begin in the school. Such study and appreciation must have their foundation in education. Thorough recognition has been accorded this fact. The results of a modest attempt to interpret the biological and social forces underlying education, to evaluate their contentions, and to enlarge and make them practical for the use of the teacher will receive treatment in a subsequent volume. Of excellent books for teachers there is no lack. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

The first major study in over three decades to explore the essential arguments of all the major theoretical interpretations of nationalism, from the modernist approaches of Gellner, Nairn, Breuilly, Giddens and Hobsbawm to the alternative paradigms of van den Bergh and Geertz, Armstrong and Smith himself. In a style accessible to the student and the general reader Smith traces the changing view of this hotly discussed topic within the current political, cultural and socioeconomic arena. He also analyses the contributions of such historians, sociologists and political scientists as Seton-Watson, Reynolds, Hastings, Horowitz and Brass. The survey concludes with an analysis of post-modern approaches to national identity, gender and nation, making it indispensable reading to all those interested in gaining full and authoritative knowledge of nationalism.