A figure of enduring ingenuity, the nation has for centuries played a part on the socio-political stage. Whether centre stage or background scenery, it has featured in violent tragedies, revolutionary drama and nostalgic fable. Today, the nation is cast simultaneously in the roles of villain and hero. While it is renounced by those advocating trans-national, post-national and cosmopolitan forms of belonging, it has lately also been asserted as the solution to various social failures in liberal democracies. This appears to leave us with two alternatives: to jettison the nation in order to move towards a less parochial world, a world in which new forms of belonging underpin more inclusive politics. Or to celebrate the nation as way of ensuring the social cement that can unite a diverse society. Using the ideas of Wittgenstein and Lacan, Amanda Machin expertly explains that the overlapping and conflicting language games of the nation produce it as an object of desire in an uncertain world. The nation is not a pre-political thing but a matter of persistent political contestation and coalition. She reveals that the nation still has a vital part to play in democratic politics, but that this role is one of improvisation. While they endure as tools of emancipatory promise, nations nonetheless remain potential categories of violent exclusion. They cannot be pinned down as easily as anti-national and pro-national alternatives suggest. It is precisely the indeterminacy of the nation that gives it ongoing importance for democracy today. Providing an urgent riposte to dominant accounts, this thought provoking and highly original account demands a re-politicisation of the nation. This book will appeal to those engaged in theory and empirical research on nations and nationalism and the question of their link to democracy in a changing world, as well as those interested in psychoanalysis and Wittgenstein.

This book examines the relationships between sport, nationalism and nation building in China. By exploring the last 150 years of Chinese history, it offers unparalleled depth and breadth of coverage and provides a clear grasp of Chinese sports nationalism from both macro and micro perspectives. Beginning with a discussion on the role of sport in the Qing Dynasty's Self-Strengthening Movement (1861-1895), the book examines how sport contributed to the shaping of the early forms of Chinese nationalism in the late 19th century. It identifies and defines the core functions of sport in the Chinese Nationalist Revolution which successfully transformed China from a culturally bound empire to a modern nation state in 1911. The following section, on the Republic of China Era (1912-1949), explores the interactions between sport and the construction of Chinese nationalism and national consciousness, illustrating how sport played its part in the building of the newly established nation state. Moving on to the Communist China Era (1949-present), the book scans the whole spectrum of both modern and contemporary Chinese nationalism and interprets the most important issues on the course of China's nation building, explaining why sport is so tightly bound up with nationalism and patriotism, and how sport became an essential part of nationalists', politicians' and educationalists' strategy to revive the Chinese nation.

This book focuses on the politics of national identity in Italy. Only a unified country for just over 150 years, Italian national identity is perhaps more contingent than longer established nations such as France or the UK. The book investigates when, how and why the discussions about national identity and about immigration became entwined in public discourse within Italy. In particular it looks at the most influential voices in the debate on immigration and identity, namely Italian intellectuals, the Catholic Church, the Northern League and the Left. The methodological approach is based on a systematic discourse analysis of official documents, interviews, statements and speeches by representatives of the political actors involved. In the process, the author demonstrates that a 'normalisation' of intolerance towards foreigners has become institutionalised at the heart of the Italian state. This work will be of particular interest to students of Italian Politics, Nationalism and Comparative Politics.

"Creating the Chupah" assesses the role of Canadian Zionist organizations in the drive for communal unity within Canadian Jewry in the first two decades of the twentieth century. Two strands of Zionism, represented respectively by the Federation of Zionist Societies of Canada and Poale Zion, were often in conflicts that reflected greater disputes. The book also describes Zionist activities within the larger spectrum of Canadian Jewish life. Montreal was at the time the "capital" of Canadian Jewry, but the Jewish communities of Toronto and Winnipeg also play a significant role in these events. Scholars of Canadian history, Jewish history, and the history of Zionism will find that by providing a detailed historical examination of the early Canadian Zionist movement, Srebrnik here makes a substantial contribution to our understanding of Zionism and twentieth-century Jewish life in Canada.

Focusing on Prussia from the Napoleonic era to the Revolution of 1848, this book boldly reinterprets the origins of German nationalism by tracing its links to eighteenth-century Enlightenment thought. It also presents a new perspective on the role of discourse in historical change, emphasizing how the concept 'nation' transformed the horizon of Prussian political debate.

On October 1, 2017, the Spanish police assault on Catalans voting in a peaceful referendum shot Catalonia's struggle for independence onto the world's front pages. Today, those two million-plus voters have neither forgiven nor forgotten: the struggle continues. Catalonia's national consciousness has deep roots. A People's History of Catalonia tells this small country's history, from below, in all its richness and complexity. Catalonia's struggles for freedom have, for centuries, been violently resisted; and its language and rights, suppressed. Since the nineteenth century, the fight for national sovereignty has often intertwined with working-class mobilisation for social justice. Barcelona became known as the Rose of Fire. In 1936 Catalonia saw one of history's most profound workers' revolutions. From the peasant revolts of the 15th century and the siege of Barcelona in 1714, through the explosive workers' movement led by anarchists, the defeat in the Spanish Civil War, to the anti-Franco resistance in the grim years that followed, the author tells a compelling story whose ending has yet to be written.

Many theoretical explanations had been offered for the rise of the European Community, but none had used historical analysis to draw out the deeper significance of the events that surrounded Maastricht. However, in this book, first published in 1993, the authors explored the process of European integration, and its future, drawing on extensive empirical research into the national archives of the member states. The authors brought their findings together in this consistently argued book to provide a new and coherent theory of European integration, which threw a fresh light on unexplored aspects of EC policy. The debate over the Treaty of Maastricht shows how ill-understood are the issues involved, and this book is intended to improve that understanding. It is essential reading to students of history, international relations and political science.

Interpretations of manhood have unfolded in India within a middle class cultural milieu shaped by an assertive self-confidence fuelled by liberalisation, a process by which India has been integrated into the global political economy and the prominence of Hindutva or Hindu nationalist politics. This book unpacks a particular gendered vision of nation in the modern Indian context by drawing on popular films. This muscular nationalism is an intersection of a specific vision of masculinity with the political doctrine of nationalism. The idea of nation is animated by an idea of manhood associated with martial prowess, muscular strength and toughness, but coupled with the image and construct of virtuous woman - a gendered binary of martial man and chaste woman. The author skilfully and convincingly draws together issues of political economy, including globalization and neoliberalism with majoritarian politics and popular culture, thus showing how disparate strands intersect and build on each other. Using interpretive methodologies and popular media, the book presents new interpretations of Bollywood films through the lenses of gender, masculinity and nationalism. It will be of interest to scholars of South Asian politics and culture, in particular Indian nationalism, popular culture, media and gender studies.

First published in 1933, Nationalism in the Soviet Union aims at presenting the mentality of the Soviet citizen, of the Communist 'theology,' and the way in which it tried to make its peace with the 'theology' of nationalism that dominated the world. The author uses the term 'theology' intentionally for he argues that both the Soviet Union and the Western civilization are based on the same idea: the secularization of the Biblical faith in world history as a single comprehensive conception; their methods, however, are radically different. The Soviet Union's understanding and use of nationalism provides deep insight into the nature of nationalism while proving the well-known truth that the emotional appeal of nationalism overrides all other forms of loyalties. Both a personal account and a political note, this book will be of interest to students of political science, international relations, history, geography, and philosophy.

First published in 1929, A History of Nationalism in the East brings together in one truly fascinating volume a mass of information hitherto scattered and partly unavailable. Hans Kohn sums up the general situation in his Introduction. He tells us that the World War I produced three great communities of interest, distinct and, to some extent, mutually antagonistic. The first was that of the continent of Europe, barring Russia, which was faced with the necessity for the gradual breaking down of national boundaries, for political, financial, and economic reasons. The second was that of the Anglo-Saxon people, the United States, Great Britain, Canada, Australia, and South Africa. This had to face Soviet Russia on the one hand, and the Oriental, the third, community of interests on the other. Here he sketches suggestively the development of the nationalist movement in Islam, India, Egypt, Turkey, Arabia, and Persia. The language used is a reflection of its era and no offence is meant by the Publishers to any reader by this republication. This book will be of interest to students of history, political science, international relations, and geography.

First Published in 1987. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

China's foreign policy in the Arab world is important because it reflects China's general foreign policy. In this study, first published in 1981, the author draws upon a wealth of previously unpublished and inaccessible material to analyse Chinese attitudes in three cases: the two Arab liberation movements, the Palestine Resistance Movement and the Popular Front for the Liberation of the Oman, and the established and independent State of Kuwait. Since the Arab liberation movements played a significant political role within their fields of operation, it was necessary for China to decide whether these movements did actually fit in with Chinese foreign policy objectives. Dr Behbehani's analysis of these two case studies provides the basis for a discussion of whether China's motives in supporting the liberation movements are theoretical or purely practical. China's support for Kuwait's political internal continuity is related to the stability of the whole Gulf region. The author analyses Chinese support for Kuwait and the surrounding conservative states on two main bases, political and economic, in the form of trade. It is through these channels, particularly the economic one, that China has sought to establish itself in the Gulf and the Arabian peninsula.

East Timor continues to be an example of a state built from the ground up, a society rebuilding itself after almost a quarter of a century of profound trauma, and consecutive eras of colonialism. The impact East Timor has had, and continues to have, across a range of fields, belies the small size of its population and territory.

This book examines the key challenges of national building in Timor-Leste in the ten years since the 1999 independence referendum. It addresses key issues in the development and reconstruction of an independent East Timor, highlighting its successes and its failures, as well as a set of unresolved issues confronting the state. East Timor provides a clear example of the challenges of post-conflict nation-building. Following the 1999 violence which precipitated institutional collapse within the territory, East Timor was often described as a nation without a state . Prior to the resurgence of violence in April 2006, the UN-led mission in East Timor (UNTAET) was considered one of the most successful examples of international state-building intervention.

The author examines the history of debates and conflict over issues of national identity, national history, cultural heritage, language policy, and relationships between distinct regions, generations, and language groups. Interdisciplinary in its approach, the analysis links qualitative studies of cultural nationalism with quantitative analyses of popular attitudes to national identity. The book argues that nation-building - in the sense of creating the conditions for social cohesion, political stability and identity formation - is a neglected dimension of the state-building process in post-independence Timor-Leste, and that these national faultlines have been key sources of civil conflict since independence. "

Spanish soccer is on top of the world, at international and club level, with the best teams and a seemingly endless supply of exciting and stylish players. While the Spanish economy struggles, its soccer flourishes, deeply embedded throughout Spanish social and cultural life. But the relationship between soccer, culture and national identity in Spain is complex. This fascinating, in-depth study shines new light on Spanish soccer by examining the role this sport plays in Basque identity, consolidated in Athletic Club of Bilbao, the century-old soccer club located in the birthplace of Basque nationalism. Athletic Bilbao has a unique player recruitment policy, allowing only Basque-born players or those developed at the youth academies of Basque clubs to play for the team, a policy that rejects the internationalism of contemporary globalised soccer. Despite this, the club has never been relegated from the top division of Spanish football. A particularly tight bond exists between fans, their club and the players, with Athletic representing a beacon of Basque national identity. This book is an ethnography of a soccer culture where origins, nationalism, gender relations, power and passion, lifecycle events and death rituals gain new meanings as they become, below and beyond the playing field, a matter of creative contention and communal affirmation. Based on unique, in-depth ethnographic research, this book investigates how a soccer club and soccer fandom affect the life of a community, interweaving empirical research material with key contemporary themes in the social sciences, and placing the study in the wider context of Spanish political and sporting cultures. Filling a key gap in the literature on contemporary Spain, and on wider soccer cultures, this book is fascinating reading for anybody with an interest in sport, anthropology, sociology, political science, or cultural and gender studies.

There are numerous examples of how religion and nationalism intertwine. In some cases, a common religion is the fundamental marker of a nation's identity, whereas in others secular nationalism tries to hold together people of different religious beliefs. This book examines the link between religion and nationalism in contemporary polities. By exploring case studies on India, Russia, Israel, Canada, Chechnya, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Belgium, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Sri Lanka, Catalonia and the Basque Country, it seeks to understand the relationship between these two key societal forms of diversity and assess the interaction between religious and nationalist perspectives. Expert contributors examine a variety of phenomena, including secular nationalism, secessionism, and polities in which religious pluralism is evolving. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of political science, religion and politics, nationalism, federalism, secession, political philosophy, racial and ethnic politics and comparative politics.

When the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) assumed power in India in 1998 as the largest party of the National Democratic Alliance, it soon became evident that it prioritized educational reforms. Under BJP rule, a reorganization of the National Council of Educational Research and Training occurred, and in 2002 four new history textbooks were published. This book examines the new textbooks which were introduced, considering them to be integral to the BJP's political agenda. It analyses the ways in which their narrative and explanatory frameworks defined and invoked Hindu identity. Employing the concept of decontextualization, the author argues that notions of Hindu cultural similarity were conveyed, particularly as the textbooks paid scarce attention to social, geographical and temporal contexts in their approaches to Indian history. The book shows that intrinsic to the textbooks' emphasis on similarity is a systematic backgrounding of any references to internal lines of division within the Hindu community. Through a comparison with earlier textbooks, it sheds light on the contested nature of history writing in India, especially in terms of nation building and identity construction. This issue is also highly relevant in India today due to the electoral success of the BJP in 2014, and the efforts of the Hindu nationalist organization Vishwa Hindu Parishad to construct a coherent Hinduism. Arguing that the textbooks operate according to the BJP's ideology of Hindu cultural nationalism, this book will be of interest to academics in the field of South Asian studies, contemporary history, the uses of history, identity politics and Hindu nationalism.

This book traces the formation of ETA (Euskadi ta Askatasuna) and the tensions created by its combination and aims: socialism and Basque nationalism. The Basque Nationalist movement emerged in the late nineteenth century as a response to the rapid transformation of Basque society by industrialisation. The influx of Spanish-speaking workers to Basque territories seemed to threaten the stability of basque society. Gradually the immigrants became absorbed into the radical struggle, with the creation of illegal trade unions and the need to resist the Franco regimne by whatever means. Over the next half century Basque consicousness developed until the radical nationalist organisation ETA was formed in 1959.

Why did the nation-state emerge and proliferate across the globe? How is this process related to the wars fought in the modern era? Analyzing datasets that cover the entire world over long stretches of time, Andreas Wimmer focuses on changing configurations of power and legitimacy to answer these questions. The nationalist ideal of self-rule gradually diffused over the world and delegitimized empire after empire. Nationalists created nation-states wherever the power configuration favored them, often at the end of prolonged wars of secession. The elites of many of these new states were institutionally too weak for nation-building and favored their own ethnic communities. Ethnic rebels challenged such exclusionary power structures in violation of the principles of self-rule, and neighboring governments sometimes intervened into these struggles over the state. Waves of War demonstrates why nation-state formation and ethnic politics are crucial to understand the civil and international wars of the past 200 years.

Catalonia: A New Independent State in Europe examines the main issues of the political process which is taking place in Catalonia today. The political confrontation between the Spanish and Catalan institutions has now reached the international arena, especially the debates concerning international recognition of a new Catalan state and its membership of the European Union (EU) and other international institutions. There are no precedents for the secession of a region from an EU member country that could be applied to the case of Catalonia. Therefore, it is not surprising that the world has many unanswered question about the process. This volume aims to provide answers to many of these questions in a systematic and rigorous way. Why has the political scenario in Catalonia changed so radically and so rapidly? Is this new situation only temporary and support for independence is likely to vanish very soon? What role has the deep economic crisis in Catalonia and in Spain played in the process? Is a potential new Catalan state economically viable? Which are the main legal controversies about self-determination and independence between the Spanish and Catalan institutions? Would an independent Catalonia be a member of the EU? This book will be of great use to academics and students in the field of politics and international relations, particularly those interested in European economic and political studies. It will also interest a wide segment of general readers interested in contemporary political issues.

First Published in 1983. This book offers a facet of Britain's Palestine Policy and attitudes that have been previously overlooked. Here the reader can discover both fascination and significance of the British Labour Movement's attitude and policies towards Zionism during the thirty-one years between 1917 and 1948.

This local study of Borneo's borderlands has global meaning. It explores how states materialize their territoriality and how people define themselves as a community, nation and ethnic group. Scholars across the humanities and social sciences will learn much from this masterful linking of history and ethnography, and of macro and micro perspectives. It reassesses the concept of nationalism by placing it in a real frontier situation. It is a study located in Borneo but of wide relevance across the humanities and social sciences.

First published in 2001. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

In Scandinavia, there is separation in the electorate between those who embrace diversity and those who wish for tighter bonds between people and nation. This book focuses on three nationalist populist parties in Scandinavia-the Sweden Democrats, the Progress Party in Norway, and the Danish People's Party. In order to affect domestic politics by addressing this conflict of diversity versus homogeneity, these parties must enter the national parliament while earning the nation's trust. Of the three, the Sweden Democrats have yet to earn the trust of the mainstream, leading to polarized and emotionally driven public debate that raises the question of national identity and what is understood as the common man.