The Construction of Nationhood
The Construction of Nationhood
$30.00
USDThis interdisciplinary book straddles the fields of history, politics, religion and sociology, and medieval and modern history. Its importance lies in its contribution to arguments about the meaning and origin of nationalism, ethnicity and nationhood, and in challenging the widely-accepted "modernist" theories of Eric Hobsbawm, Benedict Anderson and others. Its argument incorporates careful analysis of English, Irish, South Slav and African examples, and suggests finally an important contract between Christianity and Islam.
- Offers a controversial challenge to Eric Hobsbawm's best-seller Nations and Nationalism since 1780
- Constructs a new model for development of nations and nationalism, not in terms of 'modernisation' but as a medieval development dependent on religion
- Nationalism always of topical interest; analyses nationhood, making links between Britain, western Europe, the south Slavs and modern Africa
Reviews & endorsements
"Hastings writes with great clarity and a welcome freedom from current linguistic fashions in historical scholarship....He has added substantially to the growing body of evidence that the vernacular implantation of Christianity has generally been subversive, rather than supportive, of claims to imperial hegemony." Church History
Product details
November 1997Paperback
9780521625449
248 pages
229 × 152 × 14 mm
0.436kg
Available
Table of Contents
- Preface
- 1. The nation and nationalism
- 2. England as prototype
- 3. England's western neighbours
- 4. Western Europe
- 5. The south Slavs
- 6. Some African case studies
- 7. Ethnicity further considered
- 8. Religion further considered.
