Modernism

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All modernists share a belief in the modernity of nationalism Product of a specifically modern process like capitalism, industrialisation urbanisation or the emergence of the bureaucratic state There was no room for nations or nationalism in the pre-modern era Some modernists attach greater weight to economic, political or sociocultural transformations Tom Nairn Neo-Marxist Economic Focus : The Break Up of Britain Nationalism can be understood in materialist terms Roots of nationalism can be sought in the general process of historical development since the end of the 18th Century o Nationalism is determined by factors of the World Political Economy (Between French and Industrial Revolutions) Not necessarily an inevitable outcome of industrialisation but concerned more with the uneven development of history Rooted in enlightenment thinking, some states will start first and other catch up etc. Instead leading countries dominated This led to smaller countries needing to forgo some development, with the intelligentsia persuading the masses to form a militant, inter-class community, highly aware of its own separate identity outside of the dominating class Vis a Vis: Nationalism. As such the socio-historical cost of the implementation of capitalism was nationalism, the smaller countries had to develop a way to catch up Nationalism for larger countries was imported from the smaller countries on the periphery They did not need to develop it as they already had the ideals that nationalism was all about o Once nation-states had become the norm, the core countries were bound to become nationalist Good to understand that Nairn later changed this view and was far more sympathetic towards the primordialistic view of nationalism

Ernest Gellner

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Considered nationalism to be a function of modernity aided by the new role of linguistic culture It is a POLITICAL PRINCIPAL Came from an anthropological backround as opposed to historical or philosophical Rejected any approach that saw society as being shaped by any prior He rejected the epistemological approach of fundamentalism Equated modernity with industrialism Reason and science fall under this category Argues that nations are not natural because they came into being with the move to modernity (industrialism) In pre modern times people are defined by structure o Everyone knows everyone and knows everyones roles. o culture serves to reinforce this point o There is no incentive for a ruler to promote homogeneity in this case, that would remove him from power Nationalism does not always occur peacefully There is NO INCENTIVE for nationalism if there is complete cultural homogeneity, if everyone is the same then no groups will seek to become a cultural collective. If there is incentive then one group will always triumph over another weaker one, this causes Conflict

The promotion of a national language leads to an alliance between the intelligentsia and the proletariat (the mass of the weaker, disadvantaged group) Leads to a high culture culture society high culture pervades society, defines it and needs to be sustained by the polity o In industrialised society, culture replaces structure because men are not defined by their roles: there is context-free communication, labour does not involve skill with an axe but with use of machinery However, the ever-changing nature of industrial society (perpetualgrowth) means that the occupational structure changes too As such the distances between specialisations minimalises and society becomes more egalitarian

o Education is the norm, rather than rare in pre-industrial society: removes the speciality of the clerk: everyone has generic training o Mass public education is vital to achieving High Culture Nationalism is the product of industrial social organisation But, the number of potential nations far exceeds the number of actual nations It is nationalism that engenders nations, not the other way around Nations and Nationalism p55 Gellner argues that small groups become conscious of the their own wild culture and seek to change it to a garden culture through labour migration and bureaucratic employment. Teaches a people who is hostile to their culture and why to cherish it. The need for growth, generates nationalism Concedes that concepts such as written vernacular, territorial state and religion can influence the formation of a nation but does not consider them pre-nationalist nations. Understands that nationalism can be an instrument of industrialisation o Can have derivative or imitative forms, such as the creation of nations after 1918 in peace treaties o Do not necessarily have to have industrialisation to achieve nationalism, the Swiss managed it. Stages of Nationalism 1. 2. 3. Baseline ethnicity not important, no link with the political Nationalist Irredentism Political boundaries and structures are inherited, but nationalism begins to agitate these old borders Triumphant and Self Defeating Nationalism Multi-ethnic empires collapse, new states are formed around national sentiments but are just as minority haunted as the empires

4. 5.

Nacht und Nebel Moral standards are suspended in favour of nationalism, mass murder and forced assimilation of population occurs Post-Industrial General affluence of the period leads to a diminution, but not disappearance of nationalism.

Eric J. Hobsbawm

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Both nations and nationalism are products of social engineering. invented traditions i.e. a set of practices governed by certain rules or values of a symbolic nature o implies a continuity with the past o The Nation is the most pervasive of these invented traditions invented traditions are responses to novel situation which take the form of reference to old situations

1. Adaption of old processes and traditions to new situations Can be found in all societies 2. Deliberate invention of traditions Necessary in periods of extreme social change when the need to create order and unity becomes paramount o Communist states in Europe?...Ceausecu? The national community can secure cohesion in the face of fragmentation caused be rapid industrialisations Invention of tradition was used by the ruling elites to counter the danger of democracy I.e. development of primary education Development of public ceremonies (like Bastille Day) Mass production of public monuments Nationalism became a substitute for cohesion through a monarchy, a national church or other tradition Hobsbawm largely agrees with Gellners view that nationalism is a very modern constructions nations do not make states and nationalism, but the other way round Hobsbawm Nations and Nationalism since 1780 p10 Nations not only come from quest for a territorial state; also only come into being in the context of a particular stage of technological and economic development i.e. National languages cannot emerge before the invention of the printing press and spread of literacy to schools o nationalism needs to be understood both from above and from below

o Disagrees with Gellner, who does not analyse so much from below

i. Official ideologies of states are not reliable guides to what ordinary people think ii. Do not assume that national identification is the only, or even superior, than other forms of social identity iii. National identification and what it means to each individual shifts over time. Identifies Three Distinct Fazes of Nationalism 1. From French Revolution to 191: When nationalism was born a. 1830-1870: Democratic nationalism of the great nations stemming from enlightenment and French Revolution b. 1870 onwards: Reactionary nationalism of smaller countries (mostly against Ottomans and Habsburgs) 2. From 1918-1950 (pinnacle of nationalism) a. nationalism acquired a strong association with the left during the b. 3. Late a. b. anti-fascist period militant nationalism was nothing more than a manifestation of despair of those who had lost old powers Twentieth Century nationalism is functionally different i. before nationalism was unificatory as well as emancipatory Nationalism in the (late) 20th Century is essentially negative, divisive seem to be reactions of weakness and fear p164

Benedict Anderson

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Anderson compares himself against Hobsbawm and Gellner in saying that he thinks nationalism can be quite attractive compared to their more hostile take on it. Nationality and Nationalism are cultural artefacts of a particular kind. Emerged towards the end of the 18th Century due to a spontaneous distillation of a complex crossing of discrete historical forces o An explanation should not be confined to cultural and political factors Argues that nationalism should be seen in a similar term as kinship or religion. -> It is imagined because the members of the community will never meet all the others, but they share an image of their communion. It is imagined as limited because other nations lie beyond It is imagined as sovereign because the ideal was born in the time of the enlightenment and revolution o The sense of fraternity enables people to die for their imagined community

IMPORTANTLY: imagined does not mean false in the way that Gellners use of invention to mean falsity or fabrication. Argues that any community bigger than a tiny face-to-face village is imagined. Important to understand what came before nations The historical decline of the church after the 16th Century provided historical and geographical space for nations o The widening of the known world and culture was responsible for this The idea for Europeans that their culture was one of many o As was the decline of Latin compared to the vernacular The creation of Czech/German dictionaries highlights the equal emphasis given to both languages Nationalism replaces religion in providing both a reason based on history and the potential for future through chance of destiny. the past prefigures the future

As such the cultural origins of a nation can be located: 1. 2. 3. At a change in the conceptions of time The decline of religious communities Decline of dynastic realms

Print-language laid the bases for national consciousness Unified fields of exchange via the use of the vernacular Printing gave a new fixeity to language Print capitalism created new languages-of-power, different from the old administrative vernacular. Anderson argues that the creation of official nationalisms by ruling dynastic families as a means to legitimation were developed after, and in reaction to, popular nationalist movements in Europe since the 1820s

Modernist Fallacy Anthony D. Smith

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Argues that it is possible to trace the routes of nationalist sentiment beyond the 18th Century into the 15th and 16th Centuries, if not earlier. There are expressions of fervent attachment to the concept of a nation as a territorial-cultural and political community Also a notion of a middle-class nation in France around this time Countries such as Engalnd, Poland, France, Spain and Scotland are the old nations as Seton-Watson puts it. Must be seen that the creation of the nation state, and the official ideology with it does not mean that all the population subscribe to it. Some sectors have been more assimilated than others The church and ethnicity have been reasonably resilient to assimilation by nationalism o The strongest nation states are built around ethnic cores The English, the French, the Swedes.

Adrian Hastings and Perennialism

Continuous Perennialism

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Roots of the modern nation stretches back hundreds, if not thousands of years Stresses continuity, linking to medieval and ancient times Recurrent Perennialism Nations may come and go, but the nation itself is ubiquitous as a form of association and cultural identity Ethnicity a group of people with a shared cultural identity and spoken language The nation is a far more self conscious community than ethnicity o Claims a political identity and autonomy of the people

In political theory, nationalism dates from the 19th Century and argues all nations should have their own state In practice however, it derives from the idea that ones own national tradition must be defended at all costs through defense or establishment of state lines As such, ethnicities naturally turn into nations as soon as their oral vernacular turns into written language i.e. in the translation of the bible.

Hastings argues that the use of the word nation itself in England from the 14th Century alludes to the principle that Englishmen felt they were part of a nation.