May 07 2006
Nationalism Research Notes
Notes on Nationalism
Sources:
Aira Kemiläinen, Nationalism; problems concerning the word, the concept, and classification, JC311 K45
Carlton Hayes, Historical Evolution of Modern Nationalism, JC311H37 1931
Eric Hobsbawm, Nations and Nationalism Since 1780, Programme, Myth, Reality, JC311 H577 1992
Nationalism Project, online at nationalismproject.org (NP)
Nationalism, Peter Mentzel, online at: http://www.theihs.org/libertyguide/hsr/hsr.php/21.html (PM)
Timeline/Milestone:
18th –19th Century:
National consciousness (Kemiläinen)
Johann Gottfried von Herder (1744-1803): Materials for the Philosophy of the History of Mankind, 1784
Friedrich Meinecke (?) “Cosmopolitanism vs. Idea of National State” (Kemiläinen, p75)
Kant: German as “cosmopolitan” (Kemiläinen, p75)
Zimmermann: “German did not have national feeling or pride” (Kemiläinen, ?)
Hegel: “Das Volk”, “Der Geist” (and other loaded words)
Late 19th century, “Race” enters definition of “Nationalism” (Kemiläinen, ?)
20th Century:
Ernest Renan: “What is a Nation?” (Qu’est-ce qu’une nation?) 1882 (“Famous” according to NP)
Birth of national states. The age of Nationalism (Hans Kohn 1926). Political, Philosophical discussion of Nation, Nationality, Nationalism including: Kautsky, Stalin (as leadership credential?), etc.
1920-1950:
Hans Kohn, “A History of Nationalism in the East” (1929), “The idea of nationalism : a study in its origins and background” (1944), until 1974
Carlton Hayes, “Essays on Nationalism” (1926), “Historical Evolution of Modern Nationalism” (1931)
Nationalism first appeared in Encyclopedia Britannica. Entry written by Kohn. “State of mind” definition.
1950s: Eugene Lemberg “1st attempt to analyze Nationalism as matter of fact” (partial quote from Kemiläinen)
1970s-1990s:
Aira Kemiläinen, 1964, synthesis/critique of previous Nationalism study.
Anderson, Hobsbawm, Ernest Gellner, Miroslav Hroch, Miroslav Hroch (E. Euro, Slavic), etc. Also see Andersen book, pg. xii, or Hobsbawm p4
“It is not … clear why the literature on nations and nationalism entered so fruitful a phase” (Hobsbawm, p3)
Schools of Thoughts/Stages of Nationalism Study
Nationalism (or National Conscious) as a result of emerging Psychology, Philology, Biology, etc. in 19th century (Kemiläinen)
Close attachment to language, culture, ethnicity, etc.
Herder: language reflects/bears human nature, “character of a nation was seen in its language”
This argument stays with N. study: Ludwig von Mises (1930s: “”…all national struggles are language struggles”), Hobsbawm, Anderson all emphasized the role language played.
Nationalism absorbed by German Romanticism, Idealism:
Hegel’s age: Napoleonic War, Weakness of Holy Roman Empire, Revolt against French/Baroque culture, language, etc.
Key components of N: Soul, ancestry, mysticism and religiosity.
Roots from Herder: during 1810-20, “Nations have to be distinguished from each other by means of the language which was the spiritual bond and evidence of the same origin” (Kemiläinen, p85)
Nationalism as objective existence: doubts, critique
The early realization of the “Great Multiplicity” (Kemiläinen, ?)
Early definition in German encyclopedia (Der Grosse Brockhaus), “exaggerated, intolerant” (from Kemiläinen, forgot to record Edition info)
Jesse D Clarkson (1950s?) “Nationalism like Sin”
“The very ubiquity of [it] hampers objective analysis” (Kemiläinen, ?)
Boyd Chafer (1955) found definition impossible
Nationalism as “sentiment, state of mind, consciousness”
Nationalism as subjective creation:
Many students of nationalism are eventually led to the (almost tautological) conclusion that people belong to a certain nation if they feel that they belong to it. For example, Hans Kohn writes “…the most essential element [in the formation of a nationality] is a living and active corporate will” … Hugh Seton-Watson remarks: “All that I can find to say is that a nation exists when a significant number of people in a community consider themselves to form a nation, or behave as if they formed one” (Hugh Seton-Watson, 1977) (quoted from PM)
Its modernity. “artifact, invention and social engineering” (Hobsbawm, p10)
Since the 1960s, this view “has … led to some attempts at nation-building by consciousness-raising” (Hobsbawm, p8)
Nationalism as “Dual Phenomena”
Hobsbawm: “They are … constructed essentially from above, but which cannot be understood unless also analyzed from below.” (p10) Below as “assumptions, hopes, needs, longings and interests of ordinary people” (p10)
Other categorization (Eric G.E. Zuelow, NP)
1. Nationalists: timeless phenomena.
2. Perennialists who argue that nations have been around for a very long time, though they take different shapes at different points in history.
3. Modernization school is perhaps the most prevalent at the moment. These scholars see nations as entirely modern and constructed.
Significant Authors, Thoughts:
Hans Kohn (German, immigrated to US in 1931)
Dichotomy of Nationalism (as phrased by Kemiläinen)
Western vs. Non-Western
Western:
e.g. UK, France, Netherland, etc.
Feature: Democratic, liberal.
“was born in the struggle for liberty and constitutionalism” (Kemiläinen, p137)
Concurring? Hobsbawm’s view Nationalism within old states such as Britain and France has not been studied very intensively (p11)
Both liberalism and nationalism shared a healthy loathing of dynastic absolutism and of the censorship and oppression that it brought, linking their fates closely together through the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. (PM)
Non-Western:
e.g. Germany, E. Europe, Asia
Feature: later, more backward socio-political stage, protest against existing state pattern (Kemiläinen, p128). Irrational, folk community, mystery. Tend to imagine. Excitation of emotion.
The emerging nations of Europe became acquainted with nationalism “not as a vehicle of individual liberty but as an adoration of collective power.”
The new nationalism stressed collective power and unity far above individual liberty: it tended to mean independence from outside rather than freedom within. (above 2 quoted from PM)
Carlton Hayes (Columbia History professor)
Nationalism as a historical evolution (see Zuelow/NP type 2)
Nationalism from tribalism.
Discussed the dynamics b/w man’s natural group sociability and artificial sociability in larger groupings.
Nationalism vs Internationalism (has high hope and good wishes for the latter. Influenced by WWI according to Kemiläinen)
Different types of nationalism (humanitarian, Jacobin, traditional, liberal and integral)
Nationalism as religion of secular society: Habsbawm, Hayes, etc.