Key assumptions of E.J.

Hobsbawm:
1. Defines nationalism as "primarily a principle which holds that the political and
national unit should be
congruent.
2. Nations are a modern construction and that they are not unchanging social
entities.
3. Concept of nationalism developed in 18th and 19th centuries.
4. Divides the development of nationalism into three eras:
1830-1880: The economic rationality of the liberal bourgeoisie
After 1880 until the end of WWI: Rise of self-consciousness and State
patriotism is developed
And 1918-1950: The Apogee of Nationalism. The principles of what
makes a nation a nation
5. Concept of liberal nationalism, uncertainties about which groups could be classed
as nations, and which could legitimately rise to the rank of nation-state. He sets out
three criteria which determined this:
The existence of a historic state. Thus the English and the Russians, for
example, were natural candidates for modern nations.
The existence of a long-established cultural elite. This was the basis of
German and Italian nation-building, where, unlike the English, they had no
ancient sovereign state to rely on.
The capacity for conquest, proving a nations ability to survive the socioevolutionary struggle for existence.
6. It is a complexity of both geographical and chronological elements
7. He approaches nationalism from a top-down perspective i.e. it is more often
created by the state than it is the origin of a state.
8. But should develop consciousness of the mass people.
9. National identification changes over time and space.
10. Language must be learnt properly to raise consciousness.
11. In order to understand nationalism, it must also be analyzed in terms of the
assumptions, hopes, needs, longings and interests of ordinary people.
12. Thus development of nation is possible only through the development of mass
politics.