This volume is part of an annual series which brings together studies of current issues in the former USSR and Eastern Europe, providing coverage of both domestic and international developments. It is designed to bridge the gap between specialist research and journalistic accounts.

During the Cold War, nationalism fell from favour among theorists as
an explanatory factory in history, as Marxists and liberals looked to
class and individualism as the drivers of change. The resurgence of
nationalism after the collapse of the Soviet Union, however, called for
a reconsideration of nationalism and its role in history.

Against Orthodoxy uses case studies from around the world
to critically evaluate more than a quarter-century of scholarship. The
essays in this volume reveal that although theories of nationalism have
benefitted from fresh insights, they have also ossified into a new set
of orthodoxies: some scholars characterize nationalism as an outgrowth
of modernity, others view it as a European export, and still others see
it as the brainchild of intellectuals. From North America to the
Balkans and from Japan to Ethiopia, these theoretically informed and
empirically grounded studies challenge some of these orthodoxies and
offer new ways of thinking about nationalism as they explore four key
themes: theory and history, minorities and multiculturalism in the
nation-state, politics and the state, and the projection of nationalism
onto the international stage.

Collectively, the authors demonstrate that nationalism is not a
singular phenomenon but rather a generative force reflecting complex
historical, political, and cultural arrangements that defy simplistic
explanations.

Trevor W. Harrison is a professor of sociology at the
University of Lethbridge, associate director of the same
university's Prentice Institute for Global Population and
Economics, and co-founder and director of the Parkland Institute at the
University of Alberta. Slobodan Drakulic was an
associate professor of sociology at Ryerson University.