Historical Narratives and the Meaning of Nationalism

Author(s): Lloyd Kramer

Source: Journal of the History of Ideas, Vol. 58, No. 3 (Jul., 1997), pp. 525-545
Published by: University of Pennsylvania Press
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 Historical Narratives and the
Meaning of Nationalism

LloydKramer

The vast, expandingliteratureon nationalismmay well defy every gener-

alization except a familiar,general theme of intellectualhistory: texts about
nationalismhave always drawntheirperspectivesandpassions fromthe evolv-
ing political and culturalcontexts in which their authorshave lived. Modem
accountsof nationalismshow the unmistakabletracesof political,military,and
cultural conflicts in every decade of the twentieth century-from the era of
nationalistrivalriesbeforeWorldWarI to the redefinitionsof gender,literature,
andhistorythathaveemergedin contemporarypostmodernism,postcolonialism,
and multiculturalism.
This connectionbetween the texts of nationalistscholarshipand the mod-
em contextsof politics andculturesuggestswhy historicalnarrativesof nation-
alism havebecome partof the historyof nationalismitself. Nationalism'sschol-
arly interpreterscannot easily separatethemselves from the objects of their
analysis, and their interpretationsare often as diverse and fragmentedas the
nations they describe. This essay enters the debate on nationalism,describes
recurringthemes in the historicalliterature,and replicatesa key characteristic
of the historiographyby stressing that the complexity of nationalismand its
interpretersresists every simplifying, comprehensivedefinition. Histories of
nationalismprovidea strikingexampleof how the historyof ideasneverreaches
a point of uncontestedclosure and never finally escapes the political and cul-
turalcontexts in which all historicalnarrativesare produced.
Like most analysts of nationalism,I assume that it is one of the decisive
forces in modem historyandthatits significancedemandscareful,criticalanaly-
sis. It also calls for always incompletedefinitions, one of which can be drawn
from the GermanhistorianPeterAlter.Nationalismis "bothan ideology and a
political movement which holds the nation and sovereign nation-stateto be
crucial indwelling values, and which manages to mobilize the political will of

525
Copyright1997 by Journalof the Historyof Ideas, Inc.

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526 Lloyd Kramer

a people or a large section of the population."'Nationalist ideas are thus a

distinctive form of modem thought that shapes the political actions and cul-
tural identities of individualsas well as groups.The meanings of nationalism
and national identitytypically depend on various dichotomiesthat define the
nation in terms of its differences from other places or people-the dynamic
process of identityformationthathas receivedwide attentionin contemporary
culturalstudies. My own view of the "oppositional"structuresin nationalist
thinking coincides with the concise descriptionby Peter Sahlins: "National
Identity is a socially constructedand continuousprocess of defining 'friend'
and 'enemy'.... National identities ... do not depend on the existence of any
objective linguistic or culturaldifferentiationbut on the subjectiveexperience
of difference."2Sahlinsthus assumes that somethingcalled nationalidentityis
"there,"but he also insists that nationalconsciousness is a "constructed"iden-
tity. Nationalism, in short, does not express or reflect a natural,primordial
reality.
The assumptionthat nationalisms are historical ratherthan naturalphe-
nomenashapesmost of the scholarlyliterature,so thatthe studyof nationalism
leads to historical analysis ratherthan to biology or physical geography.Al-
though there have been countless historicalstudies of nationalismin different
periods, cultures,and conflicts,3my discussion will referto a small numberof
narrativesthat have made especially significant theoreticalclaims about the
natureof nationalism.Thereis of courseno way to analyzesuch theorieswith-
out exclusions and generalizations,which I shall provideby focusing mostly
on works aboutEuropeand dividingthe patternsof historicalanalysis into the
following broadcategories:(1) the descriptionof nationalismas a centralcom-
ponentof modernization,reflectingandalso shapingintellectual,cultural,eco-
nomic, social, and political transitionsfrom premodernto modem history;(2)
the claim that nationalisms are modem religious movements, related to but
also displacingearlierreligions; (3) the argumentthatnationalismis a linguis-
tic, literaryconstructionthat depends on new forms of communication,intel-
lectuals, and narratives;(4) the descriptionof nationalismas a discourse of
gender and ethnicitythat shapes individualidentitiesand also expresses anxi-
eties about sexuality,culture,and respectability;and (5) the argumentthat na-
tionalisms can be divided into categories (good/bad,Western/Eastern,politi-

Peter Alter, Nationalism, tr. StuartMcKinnon-Evans(London, 19942),4.

2
Peter Sahlins, Boundaries: TheMakingof France and Spain in the Pyrenees (Berkeley,
1989), 270-71; and see Stuart Hall and Paul du Gay (eds.), Questions of Cultural Identity
(London, 1996).
3A
comprehensivesurvey of nationalisms throughoutthe world can be found in Hugh
Seton-Watson,Nations and States: An Enquiryinto the Origins of Nations and the Politics of
Nationalism (Boulder, 1977); and see Geoff Eley and RonaldGrigorSuny,"Fromthe Moment
of Social Historyto the Workof CulturalRepresentation,"in theiredited collection, Becoming
National: A Reader (Oxford, 1996), 3-37.

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Historical Narratives 527

cal/cultural)and phases thatrepresentsharpdifferencesin the developmentof

modem nationalsocieties.
My own narrativeis more descriptivethan critical,and it deals more with
specific texts than with historicalcontexts, though I shall also note some con-
nections between the historiographyof nationalismandthe wider political and
culturalconflicts of the twentiethcentury.Historicalwritingaboutnationalism
throughoutthis violent centuryexemplifies both the culturalfluidityof histori-
cal realitiesandthe endless attemptsto reducethese realitiesto narrativeorder.

Nationalismas Modernization

Humanbeings have expressedloyaltiesto specific places or traditionssince

the beginning of civilization, but most historiansargue persuasivelythat na-
tionalism is a unique creation of the modem era. Social modernizationand
nation-buildingseem to be inseparable,as Liah Greenfeldnotes in her descrip-
tion of the "nation"as the "constitutiveelement of modernity"and in her sug-
gestion thatwe should see "modernityas definedby nationalism."4 Contraryto
some critics who see nationalismas a throwbackto premoder, tribalsystems
of identificationor behavior,most analystsassumethatboththe ideologies and
practicesof nationalismemergedin WesternEuropeduringthe eighteenthcen-
tury and spreadquickly to other societies in the era of the FrenchRevolution
and the IndustrialRevolution.Nationalismthus reflected certaintransitional,
historicalprocesses (e.g., changes in political institutions,economic systems,
and ideas aboutreligion), but it also contributeddecisively to the modernizing
political, cultural,and social structuresthat helped to produceit.
This emphasison the link between nationalismand modernityprovidesan
influential frameworkfor the questions of causality that historical narratives
commonly seek to answer.In fact the causal explanationsfor nationalismrep-
resent the most prominentsubdisciplinesof modernhistoricalknowledge:in-
tellectual, cultural,economic, social, and political. The historiographyof na-
tionalism thus expresses both the structuringcategoriesof contemporaryhis-
torical understandingand the complex, overlappinglevels of human experi-
ence, ideas, and power.
The intellectual origins of nationalism (and modernity).Few studies of
nationalismhave matched the intellectualrigor of Hans Kohn's classic work
TheIdea ofNationalism:A Studyin its Originsand Background(1944), which
defines nationalismas a "stateof mind, an act of consciousness."5Writingin
Americaas an exile fromNazi-controlledCzechoslovakia,Kohnsoughtto show

4 Liah Greenfeld,Nationalism: Five Roads to Modernity(Cambridge,Mass., 1992), 18.

5Hans Kohn, TheIdea Nationalism:A
of Study in its Originsand Background(New York,
1944), 10.

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528 LloydKramer
howthe"idea"of nationalismcouldbe progressiveorliberalat a timewhenit
had becomeso conspicuouslylinkedto fascismandviolence.As Kohnde-
scribedit, the ideaof nationalismdevelopedduringthe Enlightenment in re-
sponse to anintellectual
andpoliticalcrisisthataccompanied thedesacralization
of the monarchyandthe rise of individualism. The Enlightenment's concep-
tion of free individualsprovideda powerfulidealfor thosewho challenged
monarchical butit also threatened
authority, to destroythe foundationsof so-
cial solidarity.Whilethe newdefinitionof the individualas the locusof iden-
tity andrights"madepossiblea new realizationof manandof the human,"
Kohnexplains,"itlackedtheintegrating forceof creatinga newsymbolas the
centerandjustificationof society."A decliningallegianceto sacredauthority
thus stimulatedthe searchfor "a new orderin freedom,baseduponthe au-
tonomyof the individual." Nobodyrecognizedthe importanceof this search
moreclearlythanRousseau,andit wasRousseauwhofounda solutionin "the
sacredcollectivepersonalityof thenation."Freeindividuals couldpledgealle-
gianceto the nationratherthanto kings or social classes,therebyretaining
theirplacein a socialsystematthe sametimetheyassertedtheirrightto free-
dom.TheFrenchRevolutioncarriedRousseau'sideaintopractice,andnation-
alismprovided"theintegrating forceof thenewerawhichdawnedoverFrance,
andthroughFranceoverwesternmankind."6
Kohnthereforedescribesnationalism responseto thepo-
as an intellectual
litical,social,andculturalproblemsof integration andlegitimacyin the eigh-
teenth-century transitionto modernity. The "idea" of nationalismin his view
grewoutof thehighEnlightenment's mostsignificanthistoricallegacy(asser-
tionsthatthe"freeindividual" formsthe fundamental categoryof politicsand
society),andit clearlydifferedfromirrational, reactionary nationalisms of the
twentiethcentury.ButKohn'sintellectualhistorydoesnotgive detailedsocial
explanations forthe culturalprocessesthatcarriedideasof the "nation"from
theoristssuchas Rousseauintothedailylives of peoplein all spheresof mod-
ernsocieties.
Theculturalorigins of nationalism(and modernity).The culturaldiffusion
of nationalismbecamea key themefor laterhistorianswho (influencedby
culturalanthropology)
wantedto explainhow ideasaboutnationsactuallycir-
culatedin moder socialsystems.BenedictAndersonprovidedthe influential
modelfor suchstudiesin his accountof moder nation-building
in the para-
digm-shapingbook, Imagined Communities:Reflections on the Origin and
Spreadof Nationalism(1983; rev. ed., 1991). WhereKohnanalyzesideas,
Andersonemphasizesthedevelopment of newspapers,books,andadministra-
tive bureaucracies
thatmadeit possiblefor millionsof peopleto "imagine"
themselvesas partof the samecommunity. Thisimaginativeact of identifica-

6
Ibid., 237.

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Historical Narratives 529

tion depended from the beginning on new cultural institutions,because the

dispersed people in these societies would never meet, never see most of the
places in which their "imagined"compatriotslived, and never know anything
about the millions of individualswhom they envisioned as their community.
Accordingto Anderson,this remarkableredefinitionof identitiesresulted
from culturaltransformationsthat evolved along with new technologies for
distributinginformationin the early modem era. The emergingEuropeanstate
system and colonial empires (Andersonemphasizes the early nationalidenti-
ties of creole functionariesin America) created legal and educationalinstitu-
tions thatfosteredidentificationwith largeterritories,butnationalismforAnder-
son dependedabove all on the "convergenceof capitalismandprinttechnology
on the fataldiversityof humanlanguage."New technologies disseminatednew
culturalnarrativesin newspapersand novels, all of which "createdthe possibil-
ity of a new form of imaginedcommunity,which in its basic morphologyset
the stage for the modem nation."7Readingthe storiesof theirnationsin schools,
literatureand newspapers,individualscame to identify with public communi-
ties thatwere vastly largerthanthe local worlds in which they lived theirdaily
lives.
Theeconomic origins of nationalism(and modernity).Otheranalystshave
gone beyondAndersonin stressingthe economic transformationsthat shaped
nationalistcultures.Althoughthe economic origins of nationalismare a famil-
iartheme in Marxisthistoriography,the most influentialrecentadvocateof this
interpretation, ErnestGellner,developshis argumentwith explicitlyanti-Marxist
perspectives.The general flight from Marxismin the 1980s, however,did not
eliminateall Marxistperspectivesfrom the study of nationalism,andthe work
of Eric Hobsbawmshows how such theories can still offer importantinsights
into nationalism's complex connection to modern economic forces. Despite
theirtheoreticaldifferences,Gellnerand Hobsbawmboth insist thatthe history
of nationalismis embeddedin the history of industrializationand capitalism.
Gellner views the transitionfrom agrariansociety to industrialsociety as
the fundamentalcharacteristicof modern history. This economic reality has
affected all aspects of modernsocieties, includingthe rationalizingeconomic
and political institutionsthat dominate the nation-state.Drawing on the per-
spectives of post-WorldWarII social science, Gellnerdescribesnationalismas
a kind of instrumentalideology that both facilitates and reflects the develop-
ment of moderneconomies. Industrialsocieties requirecomplex divisions of
labor,educatedwork forces, mobile populations,and workerswho can com-
municateacross long distances.No modern economy can exist without large

7 Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities:Reflections on the Origin and Spread of

Nationalism (London, 1983; rev. ed., 1991), 15, 49; citations from the first edition; and see
Eric Hobsbawmand TerrenceRanger (eds.), The Inventionof Tradition(Cambridge, 1983),
and John R. Gillis (ed.), Commemorations:ThePolitics of National Identity(Princeton,1994).

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530 Lloyd Kramer
numbersof people who read the same language, follow the same regulations,
and manipulatethe same technologies.This economic fact of life leads Gellner
to his main theme:nationalismprovidesthe integratingstructuresof language,
education, and law that create efficient, modem, industrialeconomies. "The
roots of nationalismin the distinctivestructuralrequirementsof industrialso-
ciety are very deep indeed,"Gellnerarguesin a typical summaryof his theory.
Industrialsocieties may well drawon older "highcultures"to createtheiruni-
form nationalcultures (the unifying languagehas to come from somewhere),
but Gellnersees no significantcontinuitybetween the new industrializingcul-
tureof nationalismandthe mythic"pre-existingcultures"thatnationalistsclaim
as their origin.8
Hobsbawmalso emphasizesnationalism'srole in the creationof industrial
economies and the transitionfrom local to nationaleconomic systems. Euro-
pean nationalismsduringthe "liberalera" (1830-80), for example, helped to
justify the creation of national economies and the integrationof ever larger
territoriesandpopulationsinto unifiedeconomic andpolitical institutions.The
economic utility of nationalismalso remained significant in the later era of
Europeanimperialism(1880-1914), when socialist movementswere challeng-
ing the liberal organizationof nationaleconomies. Although Hobsbawmsug-
gests that the popular,political aspirationsof nationalistsand socialists could
sometimes overlap, he notes that nationalists served the economic needs of
elites when they celebratedshared linguistic or racial traits and ignored the
differences and conflicts within national economies.9Nationalism for Hobs-
bawm, as for Gellner,is thereforea powerfulpolitical and culturalexpression
of modernizing economic processes that have destroyed older social hierar-
chies, generatednew social anxieties, and producednew legitimatingideolo-
gies.
Thesocial origins of nationalism(andmodernity).Economicchangeshave
alteredthe statusof variousoccupationsand social groupsas well as the modes
of production.This social patterncarriesimplicationsfor the developmentof
nationalism,because nationalistshave often attractedfollowers from groups
that are losing or seeking to gain social status. The search for the sources of
nationalismhas thereforeturnedto the social historyof those people for whom
nationalistideas seem to carrythe greatestappeal.The theme of"status anxi-
ety,"for example, appearsoften in Liah Greenfeld'sNationalism:Five Roads
to Modernity(1992) as she seeks to explainwhy nationalismhas been so influ-
ential in various cultural contexts. Greenfeld writes from a classical liberal
perspectivethat emphasizes individualagency and challenges the materialist,

8 Ernest
Gellner,Nations and Nationalism(Ithaca, 1983), 27-29, 35, 38, 48-49; quotation
on 35.
9 E. J. Hobsbawm,Nations and Nationalismsince 1780: Programme,Myth,Reality(Cam-
bridge, 1990), 28-29, 38-41, 122.

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Historical Narratives 531

structuralistor Marxist theories of other recent analysts, including Gellner,

Anderson,and Hobsbawm.Yet Greenfeldalso develops her own structuralex-
planationfor nationalismby focusing on the ressentimentof social groupswho
were unhappyabout their lack of social influence (e.g., nobles in eighteenth-
centuryFrance,unattachedintellectualsin eighteenth-century Germany)or who
worried about their nation's inferiorityvis-a-vis other nations (e.g., Russian
elites or Germanintellectualswho comparedtheirnationsto Franceand Eng-
land).
The "status-inconsistency" of such groupsproducedwhatGreenfeldcalls a
"profoundsense of insecurityand anxiety"thatmade them particularlyrecep-
tive to the status-enhancingclaims of nationalism-as one sees in the exem-
plary case of Germanintellectualsat the time of the FrenchRevolution.Long
frustratedby their inabilityto gain respect, Germanwritersand philosophers
discoveredthatnationalismprovideda "practical,this-worldlysolutionto their
problem,and put an end to their alienation....Fromthis time on the pride and
the self-esteem they stroveto defend was nationalpride and self-esteem. They
changedtheir identity and became, passionatelyand irrevocably,Germans."'0
This discovery of the nation may have occurredwith unusualspeed and pas-
sion among Germanintellectuals,but Greenfeldsuggests thatsimilarnational-
isms ofressentimenthaveappearedwhereversocial changesor encounterswith
alien, apparentlysuccessful social groupshavegeneratedanxietiesaboutsocial
status and identity.Nationalism becomes in this view a modem, ideological
expression of the perennialhumanquest for social recognition,and it appeals
most to those people who feel the least respected.
Thepolitical origins of nationalism(and modernity).Most of the intellec-
tual, cultural,economic, andsocial changesthathave createdandresultedfrom
the transitions to modernity come together in the specifically political af-
firmationsof the sovereignnation-state.Venerationof the nation-statebecame
a pervasivetheme of the French Revolution,which suggests why the discus-
sion of nationalism'spolitical history almost always refersto the influence of
France.The Revolutionof 1789, as most historianshave describedit, marked
the culminationof political patterns(e.g., state-building)and ideologies (e.g.,
sovereigntyof people) thatformedthe pre-historyof nationalism.At the same
time, however, France'sRevolution markedthe startingpoint for subsequent
nationalismsthat emergedin oppositionto the Frenchascendancy.Even more
important,perhaps,the Revolutiongeneratedideas and practicesthat eventu-
ally spreadto nationalismsthroughoutthe world:the definitionsof a sovereign
nationand nationalcitizenship,the draftingof a constitution,the patrioticritu-
als of a moder nation-state,the demands of universal military service, the

'0Greenfeld,Nationalism:Five Roads to Modernity,15-16, 153-54, 186, 250, 265, 358-

59 (quotationon last pages).

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532 Lloyd Kramer

establishmentof nationaleducation,and the disseminationof nationalpropa-

ganda.'l
The FrenchRevolutionthus createda model for othernationalismsas well
as new institutionsfor France,though the Frenchmodel carriedboth negative
and positive connotations for the Europeannations that defined themselves
against the Revolutionand Napoleon. The anti-Frenchcomponentof the new
nationalismswas of courseprominentin Germany,but it also shapedthe politi-
cal constructionof British nationalism.As Linda Colley describes it in her
book, Britons: Forging the Nation 1707-1837 (1992), the idea of British na-
tionhooddeveloped rapidlyduringthe wars againstFrance'srevolutionaryand
Napoleonic armies. British nationalismprovidedthe theories and emotional
identificationsto mobilize millions of common people in supportof a state
whose political institutionshad always remainedclosed and indifferentto the
lower classes. In this new era of nationalwarfare,however,the Britishgovern-
ment, like othergovernments,needed its population'sactive supportin orderto
assureits own survival,and it was nationalismthatbroughtthese traditionally
excluded people to the nation's defense. The "mass arming in Great Britain
duringthe warsagainstRevolutionaryandNapoleonicFrance,"Colley explains,
"had provided irrefutableproof that patriotism... transcendedthe divisions
betweenthe social classes."'2All (male)personswho participatedin the struggle
againstthe nationalenemy became partof the nationand hence entitledto the
rightsof nationalcitizenshipand to representationin the images thatsustained
the "imaginedcommunity"of the British nation. The political claims of the
FrenchRevolutionand the political claims of those who fought againstit thus
generatedthe moder political conceptions of citizenship and nationality.Yet
this moder political cultureof nationalismand powerfulnationalinstitutions
also drew much of its emotionalpower from premodem,even ancient,rituals
of cultureand religion.

Nationalismas a Religion

The origins of most nations are shroudedin obscurity or symbolized by

semi-mythicalfigures, but both the obscurityand the myths offer nationalists
the means to portraythe nation as an object of reverence.The mysteries of a
nationthus resemblethe mysteriesof a religion, as historianshave often noted
in theirdescriptionsof the structuralsimilaritiesbetween nationalismsand re-
ligious faiths. Ernest Renan, writing shortly after the French had lost Alsace
andLorraineto the Germansin the Franco-Prussian War,was one of the firstto

" For a typical summaryof the FrenchRevolution'sinfluence on nationalism,see Carlton

J. H. Hayes, "The Rise of Nationalism,"in his book Essays on Nationalism (1926; New York,
1966), 46-48.
12
Linda Colley, Britons: Forging the Nation, 1707-1837 (New Haven, 1992), 319.

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Historical Narratives 533

stressthatall nationsdependon mythsof originsandthatthesemythsflourish

becausethe earlyhistoryof nationsis unknownor forgotten.Thisprocessof
forgettingthe problematic, brutalaspectsof a nation'soriginsmakesit pos-
sibleto celebratethe virtuesof its foundingheroesandto generatea mysteri-
ous senseof solidaritythatunitespeoplein "thefeelingof the sacrificesthat
one has madein the past and of those thatone is preparedto makein the
future."All nationalistcreedsthereforepraisethe individual'swillingnessto
makesacrificesfora highercauseandto affirmthenationin ritualsof collec-
tive belief. "A nation's existence is ... a daily plebiscite," Renan explained,
"justas an individual'sexistenceis a perpetualaffirmation of life."'3People
thusdecideto belongto theirnationsas theydecideto live or to affirmtheir
deepestbeliefs,andthefreedomto choosenationhoodshouldbe respected(in
Alsace,forexample)likethe freedomto chooseall otherideasor actions.
AlthoughRenansaw adherenceto the nationas a publicaffirmationof
beliefs, he did not offermuchexplanationfor why peoplewouldchooseto
affirmtheirlives andbeliefsthroughnationalism.The creationof this belief
andits translationintoactionsthusreceivedmoredetailedanalysisin thepost-
WorldWarI writingsof CarltonJ.H. Hayes,anAmerican historianwhosought
to explainthe sacrificesof the GreatWarandthepowerof patrioticideologies
by definingnationalismas the religionof modernity.Beginningwith the as-
sumption thatallpeopleneedto believein somethingoutsidethemselves,Hayes
arguedthatEnlightenment scienceandrationalityweakenedthefaithin tradi-
tionalChristianity withoutalteringthe humanneed or desireto believein a
transcendent reality.Sciencemightofferreassuringtruthsforelite intellectu-
als, butit could neversatisfythe "religioussense"of moder people,mostof
whombeganto embracethe "nation"as a substituteor supplementfor tradi-
tionalreligionduringandafterthe era of the FrenchRevolution.Like other
gods,this newtranscendent forceexistsbeforepeoplearebornandcontinues
to existaftertheydie,entersintoall spheresof life, givespurposeandvalueto
individualexperiences,anddemandsbothrespectandsacrifices."Onhis own
nationalgodthemoder religiousnationalist is consciousof dependence," Hayes
explained."Ofhis powerfulhelp he feels the need.In Himhe recognisesthe
sourceof his own perfectionand happiness.To Him, in a strictlyreligious
sense,he subjectshimself."'4
Moder nationsthusacquiredpowersthatHayescomparedto the powers
of themedievalCatholicChurch.Aboveall, themoder nation-state provided
a "collectivefaith,a faithin its missionanddestiny,a faithin thingsunseen,a
faiththatwouldmovemountains.Nationalismis sentimental, emotional,and
13
Erest Renan,"Whatis a Nation?"[1882] trans.MartinThom,in HomiK. Bhabha
(ed.),NationandNarration(NewYork,1990), 11, 19.
14
Hayes,"Nationalism as a Religion,"in Essays on Nationalism, 104-5;for his discus-
sion of the "religioussense"andthe Enlightenment, see ibid.,95-100.

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534 Lloyd Kramer

inspirational.""5 The most powerfulexpressionof this new "religion"appeared

in the millions of people who were willing to die for theirnationsduringtimes
of warfare,but the more normalaffirmationsof the faith could be found in the
daily lives of its believers.Nationalismsthereforeappropriatedreligioustradi-
tions as they developed their sacred symbols (flags), sacred texts (constitu-
tions, declarationsof independence),sacredfigures("foundingfathers,"virtu-
ous heroes) evil figures (traitorsor heretical subversives), sacred places (na-
tional monuments,cemeteries),public rituals(nationalholidays and parades),
sense of mission (responsibilityto promote national ideals), mobilizing cru-
sades (conflicts with those who oppose the nation'smission) and sense of sac-
rifice (the nation has been saved by the blood of those who died, so that it
might live).'6
It is perhapsthis last theme-those who sacrificetheir lives in wars are the
saviors of the nation-which links nationalismon the deepest emotionallevel
to the ancientthemes of religion.Nationalismgives meaningto deathandhelps
assuage anxieties about humanmortalitybecause the nation continuesto live
beyond the death of each individual;every life and death is connected to a
higher national spirit or reality that seems to promise an endless futureexis-
tence. Although othertheoristshave questionedHayes's view of the "religious
sense"in humanbeings or his accountof the continuitiesbetween the medieval
churchand the modem nation-state,his emphasis on the religious, emotional
tendencies in nationalismhas reappearedoften in subsequentstudies. Hayes
acknowledgedthatnationalismdid not always replacereligion;indeed,he sug-
gested thatthe new faithfrequentlygainedeven greaterappealwhen it could be
fusedwith traditionalreligiousbeliefs andrituals.17In every case, however,the
nationalistcreed requiresa language, a literature,and a group of interpreters
who sustain the narrativeof the nation like theologians or priests sustain the
narrativeof a religion. Nationalismis a religion, in other words, thatrelies on
the languages and narrativesof intellectualelites.

Nationalism as a Constructionof Languageand Literature

Historianshave always recognizedthatthe success of nationalistideas de-

pends on theirwide disseminationin modem societies, butthe communication
systems and narrativesthatpromotenationalistidentitieshave become increas-
ingly significant in the study of nationalismsince the 1950s. The sociologist

15Ibid., 106.
16
Ibid., 104-17.
7 Ibid., 119-23. See also Salo WittmayerBaron,ModernNationalism and Religion (New
York, 1947), ConorCruise O'Brien, God Land:Reflectionson Religion and Nationalism(Cam-
bridge,Mass., 1988), and William R. Hutchisonand HartmutLehmann(eds.), Many are Cho-
sen: Divine Election and WesternNationalism (Minneapolis, 1994).

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Historical Narratives 535

Karl W. Deutsch first helped to focus scholarly attentionon this theme in an

influentialwork,Nationalismand Social Communication(1953), which attrib-
uted the success of nationalistideas to the power of modem communications.
"Membershipin a people essentially consists in wide complementarityof so-
cial communication,"he argued in his explanationof nationalism'scultural
diffusion. "It consists in the ability to communicatemore effectively, and over
a wider range of subjects,with membersof one large groupthan with outsid-
ers."'8 For Deutsch and other communicationtheorists,therefore,modem na-
tional identitieswere shapedby modem communicationsystemsthatconveyed
the ideas and interestsof elites throughoutlarge territoriesand populations.'9
This emphasison the influence of communicationshas appearedmore re-
cently in the work of Benedict Anderson,which, as noted earlier,stresses the
role of newspapersandnovels in the creationof those "imaginedcommunities"
thatbecome modem nations.AlthoughAndersonis moreinterestedin the emo-
tional aspects of culturalidentitiesthanin detailedempiricalaccountsof com-
municationsystems, he also assumes that communicativeprocesses createthe
culturalcontexts in which nationalismscan develop. "Communitiesare to be
distinguished,not by theirfalsity/genuineness,"Andersonexplains,"butby the
style in which they areimagined."20 The imaginingof nationstakesmanyforms,
including the narrativesof national novelists, the stories in nationalnewspa-
pers, the maps that students study at schools, and the interactionsbetween
colonial governmentsand their subjectpopulations.No matterhow much they
may differ,however,these variousnationalistnarrativescarrythe influence of
intellectuals.Anderson finds that the emergence of an intellectualclass pre-
cedes the emergence of nationalist ideologies in every society that develops
nationalist identities, but this class seems to be especially prominentin the
emergence of newer nationalisms outside Europe. Writing after the decol-
onizationmovementsof the post-WorldWarII era,Andersonarguesthat"to an
unprecedentedextent the key early spokesmen for colonial nationalismwere
lonely, bilingual intelligentsiasunattachedto sturdylocal bourgeoisies."21
Anderson's account of intellectualnationalistsgenerally shows far more
sympathyfor the intelligentsiathan one finds in Elie Kedourie'sdescriptions
of similar groups in his book Nationalism (1960; fourthed. 1993). The post-
World War II anticolonial movements also influenced Kedourie,but, unlike
Anderson,he condemnednationalismas a discourseof disappointed,frustrated
intellectualswho mostly repeatedphilosophicalmistakesthatGermanRoman-
tic theorists had made in the era of the French Revolution.Kedourie's early

18 KarlW. Deutsch, Nationalismand Social Communication: An Inquiryinto the Founda-

tions of Nationality (New York, 1953; 19662),71; citation from the first edition.
19Deutsch notes the role of elites in ibid., 75-78.
20
Anderson,Imagined Communities,15.
21
Ibid., 127.

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536 Lloyd Kramer

nationalists(e.g., Fichte) arguedthat national languages were the essence of

humanidentityandthat individualscould best asserttheirwill throughthe life
of the nation.Accordingto Kedourie,this philosophicalnationalismhad disas-
trous consequences for Germansand every othernationalcommunitythat ac-
cepted linguistic definitions of the nation. "If language becomes the criterion
of statehood,"Kedourieargues in his critiqueof nationalistintellectuals,"the
clarity essential to such a notion [i.e., the political state] is dissolved in a mist
of literaryand academicspeculation,andthe way is open for equivocalclaims
and ambiguoussituations.Such an outcome is inescapablewith such a theory
as nationalism, invented as it was by literarymen who had never exercised
power."22Kedourie thus blames intellectuals for the dangers of nationalism.
Rejectingthe clear,practicalanalysis of policies thatcharacterizesthe political
language and policies of successful nation-states,German intellectuals pro-
duced an uncompromisinglinguistic view of nations that led to fanaticism,
violence, and death.23
Kedourie'sdenunciationof intellectualnationalismthus separatesthe am-
biguous narrativesof philosophyand literaturefromthe clearer,pragmaticnar-
rativesof normalpolitics, butthis is a distinctionthatpoststructuralistaccounts
of nationalismwill not accept. Representedmost forcefully in a volume edited
by Homi Bhabha,Nation and Narration (1990), this literaryapproachto na-
tionalism also emphasizes the importanceof communication,language, and
writersin the constructionof nationalisms,yet it suggests that nationalistnar-
rativesare comparableto most otherdiscoursesaboutthe world. Like politics,
literature,religion, and every other culturalpractice,the meaning of the "na-
tion" is constructedthroughnarrativeprocesses that resemble and include the
narrativeconstructionsof novels, films, andhistorybooks. ForBhabhaand his
fellow authors(writing in the wake of poststructuralisttheory) the nation is a
text, much as Andersonsuggests in his discussionof"imagined communities."
Bhabhagoes beyondAnderson,however,in stressingthatthe narratorsof this
text must contendwith contradictionsand alien supplementsthatcan never be
fully accommodatedwithin the masternarrativethat seeks to constructa fully
coherent nation. The text of the "nation,"like all other texts, relies on unac-
knowledged sources or assumptions,represses issues or ideas or people that
would call its assertionsinto question, interactswith "others"(traditions,out-
siders,critics)thatcan neverbe entirelyeffaced, andremains"alwaysalready"
situatedin a context of relationshipsthat precludes pure identity or absolute
origins.

22Elie Kedourie,Nationalism
(London, 1960; Oxford, 19934),42, 65; citationsfrom fourth
ed. Other key themes of the argumentare in ibid., 23, 35-40, 58-59, 62-63.
23 Ibid.,
77-85.

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Historical Narratives 537

Modem nations are thereforecreatedby vast processes of "writing"that

can never fully overcome their own internaltensions. As Bhabhadescribes it,
there "is a particularambivalencethat haunts the idea of the nation, the lan-
guage of those who write it and the lives of those who live it."24The historyof
nationalismis thus a historyof conflicts over competingnarrativesthat seek to
define a social community. More specifically, it is a history of contestation
between those who seek a fully coherentnarrativeof the community's exist-
ence and those whose presence, ideas, color or cultureunderminethe possibil-
ity of that coherence.Nations and nationalisms,in this view, repeatedlyface a
dialecticalstrugglebetween the quest for coherenceor unity and the inevitable
frustrationof thatquest by the challengeor complexityof difference(the quest
and frustrationthat also appearin the history of writing).There would be no
meaning in the search for unity within a nation or againstother nations if the
difference did not exist; nationalismsdepend on difference.It is thereforethe
presence of"otherness" that both fuels the desire for a fully coherentnation/
narrativeand also makes it impossible for that totalizing desire to be fulfilled.
The poststructuralistaccount of nationalism,in short, highlights the ambiva-
lent relationbetween a much-desiredcoherentor purenationalidentityandthe
"other"thatmakesthis coherenceimpossible.The nation,as Bhabhadefines it,
"is internallymarkedby culturaldifferenceand the heterogeneoushistoriesof
contendingpeoples,"so that one always finds "culturalliminality-within the
nation."25
Recent discussions of the literaryand linguistic constructionof national-
ism have thereforemoved towarda "multicultural"descriptionof nationsthat
focuses on the competinglanguagesand narrativeswithin a society ratherthan
the unity of communicationsor the unityof"imaginedcommunities."Although
intellectualsremainimportantin these recenthistoriesof nationalism,they are
viewed more often as persons who have tried (but failed) to efface the differ-
ences thatenablethemto constructtheirnarrativesandtheirculturalcommuni-
ties. This ambiguous,inescapablerelationto difference"haunts"nationalisms
in every part of the world, even or especially when the Other is most vehe-
mently condemned.Intellectualsin Asia, for example, striveto separatetheir
culturesfrom the West,but as ParthaChatterjeehas noted,theiranticolonialor
postcolonial narrativescontinue to be defined with referenceto the ubiquitous
WesternOther.To be sure,Asian intellectualswant theirnationsto modernize
without simply following Westernprecedents;yet their organizingcategories

24 Homi K. Bhabha, "Introduction:Narratingthe Nation," in Bhabha (ed.), Nation and

Narration, 1; and see my review essay, "Nationsas Texts: LiteraryTheory and the History of
Nationalism,"The MarylandHistorian, 24 (1993), 71-82.
25Homi K. Bhabha, "DissemiNation:Time, Narrative,and the Margins of the Modem
Nation,"in Bhabha(ed.), Nation and Narration,299, and also The Location of Culture(Lon-
don, 1994).

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538 Lloyd Kramer

of analysis rely on a Westerntraditionfrom which they wish to declare their

independence.Claims to independenceare themselves linkedto Western,En-
lightenmentconceptions of progress,so that the definitionsof a "new nation"
such as India necessarily depend on both the existence and effacement of an
"other"thatneverdisappears.Asian nationalismthus remainspartlya "deriva-
tive discourse"for Chatterjeebecause"evenas it challengedthe colonial claim
to political domination,it also acceptedthe very intellectualpremises of 'mo-
dernity'on which colonial dominationwas based."26
Despite their significant differences from other analysts of nationalism,
Chatterjeeand Bhabhaextendthe tendencyof KedourieandAndersonto focus
on intellectualsand narrativesthatseek to createnationalidentityor unity.The
key theme of the more recent theoreticalaccounts, however,suggests that the
desire for unified nations can never be fully realized,partlybecause the exist-
ence of "others"remainsnecessaryfor the conceptualizationof the nationand
partlybecause unity in any communityis challengedby the presence of differ-
ent narrativesabout reality, different culturaltraditions,and different sexual
and ethnic idenities. Not surprisingly,therefore,analysis of the nationalistas-
pirations for totalizing narrativeshas now turnedto the political, social, and
culturalpracticesthat give genderedand ethnic meanings to modernnational
identities.

Nationalismas a Discourse of Gender,Sexuality,and Ethnicity

Contemporarystudies of gender and sexuality have led historiansto see

thatimplicitor explicit assumptionsaboutgenderand sexual identityshapethe
public spheres of politics and culture as well as the more private spheres of
families and childrearing.Analyzed in terms of the languagesandpracticesof
gender or sexual identities,nationalismcan be seen as a powerful ideological
expressionof (and contributorto) moderndefinitionsof "masculine/feminine"
or "normal/abnormal"behaviors. These long-ignored sexual dimensions of
nationalistideas providethe theme for George Mosse's Nationalismand Sexu-
ality: Respectabilityand AbnormalSexuality in Modern Europe (1985), the
bookthathelpedto opena new conceptualframeworkforexploringnationalism's
ideological constructionand consequences.
Mosse argues that the emergence of Europeannationalismsin the early
nineteenth century coincided with the emergence of new ideas about proper
social behavior-especially the bourgeoisemphasison controllingsexual pas-
sions and on marriageas the only respectable,normal sexual relationship.In

26ParthaChatterjee,Nationalist Thoughtand the Colonial World:A DerivativeDiscourse?

(London, 1986), 30; see also 37-38, and The Nation and Its Fragments:Studies in Colonial
and Post-ColonialHistories (Princeton,1993). See also Peter Hulme and FrancisBarker(eds.),
Colonial Discourse/Post-Colonial Theory (Manchester, 1994).

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Historical Narratives 539

this new social world, Mosse explains,nationalismbecame an ally of"respect-

ability,"channelingyouthful passions into "love of the nation,"linking sexual
identities to national identities, and "spreadingrespectabilityto all classes of
the population."27 The new ideologies could overlapon various levels because
both respectabilityand the nation created clear distinctionsbetween insiders
and outsidersor between normaland abnormal.National insiders came to be
identifiedwith normal sexuality and with adjectivessuch as "manly"or "vir-
ile," whereasthe outsiderscame to be associatedwith abnormalsexual behav-
iors and"feminine"passionsor weaknesses.Nationalismsdefinedgood women
as well as good men by claiming that women embodied the nation's virtue
(respectability)and that virile nationalistsmust defend the saint-likehonorof
theirwomen. "Thedynamicof modem nationalismwas built upon the ideal of
manliness,"Mosse notes in one descriptionof the genderednation."National-
ism also put forwarda feminine ideal, but it was largely passive, symbolizing
the immutableforces which the nationreflected[e.g., Mariannefor the French,
Germaniafor the Germans]."28
Yet the positive sexual images of the good nationalistrelied also (as al-
ways) on images of the threateningOtherswho crossed the "normal"bound-
aries of sexual behaviorand"respectable"genderidentities.Forproperpeople
in all social classes, therefore,the "uglycounter-imageof the nervous,unstable
homosexual and masturbator... became an importantsymbol of the threatto
nationalismand respectability."29 Although Mosse notes that the "male bond-
of
ing" good soldiers and nationalistsmight well have generatedhomoerotic
attachments,the nationalistsbelieved that this specific expressionof love and
loyalty between men was free of eroticism because it was directedtowarda
sharedlove for the nation.It was always the "others"who were proneto sexual
corruptions,which may explain why sexual anxieties could easily fuse with
racism: those groups who were described as threatsto the racial essence of
Europeannations(e.g., Africans,Jews) were also describedas sexual threatsto
national virtues (i.e., inclined to sexual license or homosexuality).30In short,
the emotionalaspirationfor "pure"nationsbecame virtuallyinseparablefrom
the emotional aspirationfor purified sex, social respectabilty,and what we
might now call "family values."
Mosse's accountof the connectionsbetween nationaland sexual identities
has been extendedin a collection of essays, Nationalisms& Sexualities(1992),
which was edited by four literarytheorists:AndrewParker,MaryRusso, Doris
Sommer,and PatriciaYaeger.As the editorsexplain in their introduction,con-

27
George Mosse, Nationalism and Sexuality: Respectabilityand AbnormalSexuality in
Modern Europe (New York, 1985), 9.
28
Ibid., 64.
29
Ibid., 31.
30 Ibid., 80, 134, 138, 147, 151.

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540 Lloyd Kramer

temporarystudies of nationalismand sexuality tend to share the assumption

that the culturalmeanings of such identitiesevolve in a dynamic,"relational,"
interactionof differences. "In the same way that 'man' and 'woman' define
themselves reciprocally(thoughnever symmetrically),nationalidentityis de-
termined not on the basis of its own intrinsic propertiesbut as a function of
what it (presumably)is not."3'This emphasis on the constructionof identities
throughdefinitionsof differenceappearsthroughoutNationalisms & Sexuali-
ties, but it becomes particularlysignificantin discussions of nationalistanxi-
eties about homosexuality.Lee Edelmanfinds such anxieties, for example, in
the ways thatAmericanslinked homosexualityto fears of communistsubver-
sion duringthe Cold War.Indeed, the author of an article in Life magazine
definedthe nationalistanxiety in one of the most familiarmetaphorsof the era:
"Do the homosexuals,like the Communists,intendto buryus?"Assumingthat
the answer to this question called for aggressive action, American leaders of
the campaignagainst communismsought to identify homosexualsin the gov-
ernmentbecause of the "widespreadperception of gay sexuality as an alien
infestation."32
Such argumentsabout the influence of sexual categories on modem na-
tionalismsprovidenew ways to analyzethe emotionalintensitythatis aroused
in "defense of the nation."Defending a nationalistidentityalso means defend-
ing a sexual identityagainstthreatsfrom others,as Americanshave seen in the
reactionsto proposalsthat women and homosexuals should have equal rights
and duties in the military.Althoughadvocatesof traditionalexclusions appeal
to "nature"in orderto supporttheirviews, the recurringtheme in most recent
studies of both nationaland sexual identitiesstressesthat all identitiesare his-
toricallyconstructed-the anti-essentialistperspectivethatalso appearsin most
accounts of ethnic identities.
Contemporaryanalysts of ethnic nationalismsusually reject the claims of
nationalistswho say they representancientracial,religious,andlinguisticcom-
munities; in fact, as critical analysts note, such claims inevitably depend on
moder narratives.The resurgenceof ethnic nationalismsin recent decades,
however, has broughtethnicity back into the debate;and Anthony Smith, for
one, takes the ethnic claims and continuitiesof moder nationalismsas a cen-
tral theme for analysis. Complainingthat most approachesto nationalismas-
sume too much of a breakbetween premodernand moder forms of collective
identity,Smitharguesthatnationalidentitiesarerootedin an"enduringbase of
ethnic ties and sentiments"and that"ethnicityforms an element of cultureand

31Andrew
Parker,Mary Russo, Doris Sommer, and PatriciaYaeger, "Introduction,"in
Parker,et al. (eds.), Nationalisms and Sexualities (New York, 1992), 5.
32 Lee
Edelman,"Tearoomsand Sympathy,or, The Epistemologyof the WaterCloset,"in
ibid., 268-69. See also Anne McClintock,ImperialLeather:Race, Genderand Sexualityin the
Colonial Contest (New York, 1995), esp. 352-89.

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Historical Narratives 541

social structurewhich persists over time." Modem nations, in Smith's view,

evolve out of "culture-richcommunities"that retain "the sentiments,beliefs
and myths of ethnic origins and bonds,"all of which contributeto nationalist
culturalmovements and to aspirationsfor independentnationalstates.33
According to Smith, the defense of ethnic communities continues after
independencebecause the new nationalstates, like theircolonial or premodern
predecessors,inevitablycreatea "gap"between the state and its "people."The
aspirationfor congruence between "state"and "nation"remains unfulfilled,
thus fosteringnew forms of ethnic nationalismamong intellectualsand other
social groups who find themselves excluded from the dignity and statusthey
wanted the nation-stateto provide. Although intellectualsoften see national-
ism as a way to reconcile the need for modernization(science) and the need to
protectnationalcultures(tradition),they eventuallydiscover that the modern-
izing projectignores many of the "people"whom the state claims to represent.
Ethnicnationalismfor Smiththus grows out of a preexistingculturalbase, but
the ancientculturetakes new formsamong intellectualswho claim to speakfor
ethnic communitiesthat have not been recognized, even in their own states.34
Smith'sdiscussion of ethnicitydoes not examinethe sexual identitiesthat
concern Mosse and other recent historians,but he shares their interestin the
culturalrepresentations
of nationalismandtheirresistanceto familiar,categorical
distinctionsbetween "good nationalisms"(Western)and "bad nationalisms"
(Eastern).In contrastto Smith and Mosse, however,most authorsnarratethe
history of nationalismwith dichotomies that categorize,praise, and condemn
the culturesthey describe.

Nationalisms as Categoriesof HistoricalAnalysis

Nationaliststypically describetheir nationsby emphasizinghow they dif-

fer from others,so the history of nationalismscould be describedon one level
as a history of intellectual dichotomies (self/other) that create hierarchiesof
value. In this respect, much of the historicalliteratureabout nationalismrepli-
cates the intellectualtendenciesof nationalistcultures,because it also catego-
rizesculturesin termsof historicaldifferencesandcontrastingpatternsof"good"
or "bad"development.This dichotomizing structurein the historiographyof
nationalism has appearedthroughoutthe twentieth century, beginning with
FriedrichMeinecke's distinction between "cultural"nations and "political"
nations in Cosmopolitanismand the National State (1907). As Meinecke de-

33AnthonyD. Smith,Theoriesof Nationalism (1971;NewYork,1983),xxxi-xxxii;cita-

tionsfromthe prefaceto the secondedition;andsee Smith,TheEthnicRevival(Cambridge,
1981); The Ethnic Origins of Nations (Oxford, 1986); and National Identity(London, 1991).
3 Smith, Theories
of Nationalism, xxxvi, 231-54.

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542 LloydKramer
finedthe difference,culturalnationswere "primarily basedon somejointly
experienced cultural
heritage,"whereas nations
political were"primarily based
on the unifyingforceof a commonpoliticalhistoryandconstitution."35 This
distinctionreferredof courseto thecontrasting historiesof Germany(cultural
nation),France, andEngland(politicalnations),andit gaveMeineckethecon-
ceptualmeansto affirmthe philosophicalandculturalachievementsof Ger-
many.
AlthoughMeinecke'scategorieshaveoftenreappeared in otherhistoriesof
nationsandnationalisms, thesubsequent evolutionof Germannationalism and
Nazismmademost historiansfar morecriticalof the "cultural" nationalism
thathe hadadmired.Indeed,theideologiesandactionsof fascistnationalisms
in the 1930s and 1940s have often been interpreted as the final, horrifying
of a
expression dangerous "Eastern" nationalism thatcelebrates culture,race,
andirrationalism againstthepoliticaldemocracy,civil rights,andrationalism
of "Western" nationalisms.HansKohnprovidedthe classicaccountof these
distinctionsduringWorldWarII,buthis dichotomieshavehelpedto shapethe
meaningof nationalismdownto our own day. "WhileWesternnationalism
was,in its origin,connectedwiththeconceptsof individuallibertyandrational
cosmopolitanism currentin the eighteenthcentury,"Kohnargued,"thelater
nationalismin CentralandEasternEuropeandin Asia easilytendedtowarda
contrarydevelopment." This "laternationalism"in places such as Germany
thusbrokewithWesternEnlightenment traditionsandturnedto a disastrous,
Romanticdesirefor "mysticalintegrationaroundthe irrational,precivilized
folk concept."36
Otherwritershaveexpanded Kohn'sviewof thedifferences between"West"
and"East"by focusingmoreon politicsor socialsystems,andtheyhavenot
alwaysmadetheirorganizingdistinctionsas explicitas Kohn's.Yetthefunda-
mentalopposition (West/East)remainsaninfluential paradigm forauthors whose
researchhasotherwisecarriedthemfarbeyondtheviewsandmethodsof Kohn's
generation.Muchof the appealof this dichotomystems fromthe fact that
societiesin WesternEuropediddevelopin waysthatdifferentiated themfrom
othersocietiesto the East.NeitherEnglandnor France,for example,hadto
strugglefortheestablishment of a nationalstate.LaterEasternnationalisms, as
JohnPlamenatzhasnoted,facedthechallengeof creatingnewstatesorassert-
ing theexistenceof distinguished highcultures-culturesthatcouldnotavoid
comparative referencesto theWesternnationalstatesandculturesthathadpre-
cededthem(the Slavsofferan exampleof this complexprocess).37 Although

35Friedrich
Meinecke, Cosmopolitanismand the National State, trans. Robert B. Kimer
(Princeton, 1970), 10.
36
Kohn, The Idea of Nationalism,330, 351.
37 John Plamenatz,"TwoTypes of Nationalism,"in Eugene Kamenka(ed.), Nationalism:
The Nature and Evolutionof an Idea (New York, 1976), 27, 29-31.

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Historical Narratives 543

early "Risorgimento"nationalismscould still build their claims for new politi-

cal stateson what PeterAlterdescribesas the cosmopolitan,"liberal"legacy of
the FrenchRevolution, most central Europeannationalistslater embracedan
"Integral"nationalismthat defined "one nation as the Absolute,"assertedthe
superiorityof specific culturesand races, and describedthe relationsbetween
these culturesor races in a Darwinianlanguageof endless struggle.38
Similarcategoricaldifferences shape numerousrecent accounts of Euro-
peannationalisms,includingthe careful,imaginativeworksof RogersBrubaker,
CitizenshipandNationhoodin Franceand Germany(1992), andLiahGreenfeld
(whose argumenthas been noted in the context of "modernization"theories).
Brubakeruses history to explain why it was always easier to become a citizen
of Francethan a citizen of Germany,a significantculturaldifferencethat he
tracesto contrastingconceptionsof"nationhood." Accordingto Brubaker,France
has drawnon the legacy of 1789 to define the nationandrightsof citizenshipin
terms of an allegiance to universalpolitical values and a residency or birthon
Frenchterritory,whereas Germanyhas always defined its nation and citizen-
ship as a "community of descent." French nationalism has therefore been
"assimilationist"and inclusive for those who accept Frenchpolitical and cul-
turalideals; Germannationalismhas stressedethnicityand thereforeremained
essentially closed to others.To be sure, as StevenVincentpoints out in another
discussion of the French/Germandichotomy,the "universalism"of Frenchna-
tionalismhas often excluded certainsocial groupsand assertedits claims with
violence ratherthan with intellectual arguments(e.g., revolutionarywarfare
within Europe,imperialismoutside Europe).39Still, for Brubaker,Vincent,and
many others, the distinctionbetween Frenchand German,Westernand East-
ern, remainsthe most useful analytical system for categorizingthe history of
nationalisms-even whenthe analysisturs to contemporaryconflictsin Bosnia,
Indiaor the Middle East.
Themost comprehensiverestatementof these enduringcategoricaldichoto-
mies can be found in Liah Greenfeld'sNationalism:Five Roads to Modernity.
Thisprovocativeworkincludesan exceptionalwealthof informationandtheory
aboutnationalismsin England,France,Russia,Germany,andthe UnitedStates,
but its structuringassumptionsessentiallyrepeatthe oppositionsbetweenWest
and East that have shaped so many books on nationalismsince the 1940s. In
Greenfeld'sview nationalismfirstemergedas an affirmationof individualdig-
nity, freedom,rationality,and political equalityin sixteenth-and seventeenth-
century England. This early English nationalismwas a "good" nationalism

38
Alter,Nationalism,19-23,26-27;quotation,26.
39
RogersBrubaker,Citizenshipand Nationhoodin Franceand Germany(Cambridge,
Mass., 1992), 1, 14, 72, 111-13, 115, 119, 177-78,and K. StevenVincent,"NationalCon-
sciousness,Nationalism,andExclusion:Reflectionson the FrenchCase,"HistoricalReflec-
historiques,19 (1993),433-49.
tions/Reflexions

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544 LloydKramer
because it emphasizedcivic andpolitical responsibilities,recognizedthe value
of individualliberty,andbuiltits political theorieson the solid base of practical
experience. The same kind of constructive nationalism soon reappearedin
America, where it steadily evolved in more democraticdirections(except in
the slaveholding South) throughoutthe eighteenthand nineteenthcenturies.
Meanwhile,the Frenchdevelopedtheirown nationalistideology, stressing
rationalityand libertybut unfortunatelyplacing more faith thanthe English in
abstractviews of reason and the state. Russian nationalists,by contrast,as-
serted their national identity in terms of "blood and soil" or "spirit,"thereby
rejecting reason and celebratingthe mystery of the "people"ratherthan the
freedom of individuals.Although this Russian irrationalismwas bad enough,
the full danger of anti-Westernnationalisms emerged finally in the German
Romantics'rejectionof rational,democratic,individualistideals."TheRoman-
tics," Greenfeldexplains, "hadno understandingand no taste for the libertyof
the individual-namely personalindependenceandfreedomfromcoercionand
arbitrarygovernment."40 Germanintellectualsthereforeconceived of their na-
tion as a higher reality of philosophy and languagewhich manifesteditself in
the Germanrace, the influentialtheme that would shape Germannationalism
from the early Romanticpoets to the genocidal policies of Nazism. "Germany
was ready for the Holocaust from the moment Germannational identity ex-
isted," Greenfeld writes in a sweeping denunciationof a Germannationalist
culturethat she blames for Marxismas well as for Hitler.4'
Greenfeld'sbook thus brings together new and old argumentsto reaffirm
the analyticalcategoriesof most Westernwritingon the historyof nationalism.
Returningto the conceptual frameworkof her predecessors, she draws stark
distinctionsbetween Westernand Easternnationalismsand clearly assertsthe
superiorityof Anglo-American, civic-individualist nationalisms against the
dangers of German-Russian,ethnic-collectivist nationalisms.The brutalhis-
tory of "Eastern"nationalismsprovides persuasive evidence for Greenfeld's
dichotomies,but her themes also conformto the self-representationsof"West-
ern" nationalisms,ignore the brutalityof "Western"national states (e.g., she
does not discuss the racistdestructionof Native-Americans),andshow how the
history of nationalismin the 1990s remainshauntedby the horrorsof Nazism
and Stalinismin the 1940s. Stronglyinfluencedby these inescapablehistorical
contexts, Greenfeldnarratesthe meaning of moder nationalismwith the po-
larities and oppositionalcategories of the twentiethcentury'smost conspicu-
ous political and militaryconflicts.

40
Greenfeld, Nationalism: Five Roads to Modernity,348-49; and on other nationalisms
cf. 31, 79, 86, 167-68, 256, 261, 409, 420, 449, 476, 484.
41 Ibid., 384; see, also, 387-95.

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Historical Narratives 545

The Futureof Nationalismand its Interpreters

I have suggested that the historiographyof nationalismprecludesdefini-

tive conclusions, much as nationalismitself eludes definitive narratives.It is
thereforeimpossible in my view to isolate one theory or narrativeof national-
ism and assert its clear superiorityover all others, though I think the most
innovative recent work appears in the culturalhistories of nationalistideas.
Every theory I have summarizedoffers insights that would-be historians of
nationalismmust consideras they constructnew accountsof nationalistideol-
ogy or action; indeed, few historianswill be able to move beyondthe explana-
tory categoriesthathave alreadybeen used to describenationalism'spervasive
influence in modem world history.
We can neverthelessexpect new theoriesto emerge,in partbecausenation-
alism shows few signs of disappearing,in partbecause the evolutionof nation-
alist institutions and ideas will direct attentionto new problems, and in part
because the dynamic history of culture is bound to produce new conceptual
perspectivesfor describingwhat we have seen before. In recentyears, for ex-
ample,new theoriesaboutgender,sexuality,literarynarration,andthe cultural
constructionof identity have helped historiansto redefine the meaning and
influence of nationalism.Whateverelse one might say about the study of na-
tionalism,it has always been a field in which the political and culturalcontexts
of the interpretershas had an especially visible effect on the themes of the
discourse.This historicalpatternwill surelycontinuein the future,so thatchang-
ing contexts will inevitably help to shape new narrativesabout nations and
nationalisms.(There is of course never a single context that accounts for his-
toricaltexts, just as there is never a single nationalismor a single influence on
any specific nationalism.)
The culturalconstructionof scholarship,like the culturalconstructionof
nationalisms,is a dynamicprocess, dependenton relationsof identityand dif-
ference, influenced by economic forces as well as ideas, and generatingnew
interpretationsor new careerslike nationalismsgeneratenew states.Historical
analysisof nationalismthusremainsas open-endedas the contemporary,evolv-
ing historyof nations.It is also truethatdisputesbetween theoristsof national-
ism persist and recur like disputes between nations, though the conflicts of
scholarsrarely carrythe same deadly consequences. But who can predictthe
conflicts and consequencesof scholarshipandnationalismin the next century?

University of North Carolina,Chapel Hill.

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