See Main Page for a guide to all contents of all sections.

Contents

• Nationalism
  • Analyses
  • Non-National Forms of Government
• Cultural Nationalism: The Nation as Positive Focus of Identity
• Liberal Nationalism: The Nation as a Basis for Liberal Democracy
• Triumphal Nationalism: The Nation as a Claim to Superiority

Nationalism

Nationalism was the most successful political force of the 19th century.  It emerged from two main sources: the Romantic exaltation of "feeling" and "identity" [see Herder above all on this] and the Liberal requirement that a legitimate state be based on a "people" rather than, for example, a dynasty, God, or imperial domination. Both Romantic "identity nationalism" and Liberal "civic nationalism" were essentially middle class movements. There were two main ways of exemplification: the French method of "inclusion" - essentially that anyone who accepted loyalty to the civil French state was a "citizen". In practice this meant the enforcement of a considerable degree of uniformity, for instance the destruction of regional languages. The US can be seen to have, eventually, adopted this ideal of civic inclusive nationalism. The German method, required by political circumstances, was todefine the "nation" in ethnic terms. Ethnicity in practice came down to speaking German and (perhaps) having a German name. For the largely German-speaking Slavic  middle classes of Prague, Agram etc. who took up the nationalist ideal, the ethnic aspect became even more important than it had been for the Germans. It is debateable whether, in practice,  all nationalisms ended up as Chauvinistic and aggressive, but the very nature of nationalism requires that boundaries be drawn. Unless these boundaries are purely civic, successful nationalism, in many cases produced a situation in which substantial groups of outsiders were left within "nation-states".

• WEB Nationalism Links [At nl.net]
• Nationalism and Music [At this Site]
  A multimedia exploration of themes in the developmental stages of nationalism.
• Voltaire (1694-1778): Patrie, in The Philosophical Dictionary, 1752 [At this Site]
  Voltaire's attack on national chauvinism - and his views than people should be citizens of the world. It was this view that was rejected by nationalists.
• Analyses
  • Edward Augustus Freeman (1823-92): Race and Language, 1879 [At this Site]
• Non-National Forms of Government
  • Joseph De Maistre: The Divine Origins of Constitutions, 1810, excerpts [At this Site]
    Conservative political thinking.
  • Tsar Nicholas I (b.1796-r.1825-1855): Imperial Manifesto on Poland, March 25, 1832 [At this Site]

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Cultural Nationalism: The Nation as  Positive Focus of Identity

• Johann Gottfried von Herder (1744-1803): Materials for the Philosophy of the History of Mankind, 1784 [At this Site]
• Johann Gottfried von Herder (1744-1803): Outlines of a Philosophy of the History of Mankind (1784-91)
  See Summary of His Development
• Henry St. John, Viscount Bolingbroke: On Patriotism, 1730-1754 [At this Site]
• Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832): The Patriot [At Warwick]
• Richard Price: The Discourse on the Love of Country, 1789 [At this Site]
• Lord Byron: The Isles of Greece [At this Site]
  A philhellenic text - and Philhellenism was one of the major factors in enabling Greece to be the first "new" nation in Europe in 1821.
• Prince Ukhtomskii: Russia's Imperial Destiny, 1891 [At this Site]

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Liberal Nationalism: The Nation as a Basis for Liberal Democracy

• Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762­1814): Addresses to the German Nation, 1806 [At this Site]
  Political nationalism as a response to Napoleon.
• Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762­1814):: Address To The German Nation, 1807  [At this Site]
• Giuseppe Mazzini (1802-1872): An Essay On the Duties of Man Addressed to Workingmen [At Hanover]
  Mazzini is perhaps the premier representative of Liberal Nationalism.
• Giuseppe Mazzini (1802-1872): On Nationality as a Key to Social Development, 1852, excerpts [At this Site]
• Louis Kossuth (1802-1894): Speech in Washington DC, January 7, 1852 [At Hnet]
  Kossuth was a leading Hungarian Nationalist.
• Heinrich von Gagern: German Student Movement
• Daniel O'Connell (1775-1847): Justice for Ireland, Speech to House of Commons, Feb 4, 1836 [At this Site]
• Theodor Herzl (1860-1904): On the Jewish State, 1896, excerpts [At this Site]
• Theodor Herzl (1860-1904): The Jewish State, 1896 [At this Site]
• Proclamation of the Irish Republic, Easter 1916 [readable image file of poster] [At this Site]
• Henry W. Massingham: Ireland, 1916--And Beyond, The Atlantic Monthly, December1916 [At The Atlantic]

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Triumphal Nationalism: The Nation as a Claim to Superiority

• Max Schneckenburger: The Watch on The Rhine, 1870 [At this Site]
• Ernst Moritz Arndt: The German Fatherland [At this Site]

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NOTES:

Dates of accession of material added since July 1998 can be seen in the New Additions page.. The date of inception was 9/22/1997.

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created 1997: last revised 5/1/2001