Nations The Long History and Deep Roots of Political Ethnicity and Nationalism

What are the origins of nationalism and why is it capable of arousing such intense emotions? In this major study, Azar Gat counters the prevailing fashionable theories according to which nations and nationalism are modern and contrived or 'invented'. He sweeps across history and around the globe to reveal that ethnicity has always been highly political and that nations and national states have existed since the beginning of statehood millennia ago. He traces the deep roots of ethnicity and nationalism in human nature, showing how culture fits into human evolution from as early as our aboriginal condition and, in conjunction with kinship, defines ethnicity and ethnic allegiances. From the rise of states and empires to the present day, this book sheds new light on the explosive nature of ethnicity and nationalism, as well as on their more liberating and altruistic roles in forging identity and solidarity.

1. Is nationalism recent and superficial?; 2. The evolution of kin-culture communities; 3. From tribes to statehood; 4. Premodern ethne, peoples, states and nations around the world; 5. Premodern Europe and the national state; 6. Modernity: nationalism released, transformed and enhanced; 7. State, national identity, ethnicity: normative and constitutional aspects; Conclusion.

This major new study counters the prevailing fashionable theories according to which nations and nationalism are a modern 'invention'. It traces the roots of ethnicity and nationalism in human nature, and sweeps across history and around the globe to show that nations and national states have existed for millennia.

Azar Gat is Ezer Weitzman Professor and Chair of the Political Science Department at Tel Aviv University. His more recent publications include A History of Military Thought: From the Enlightenment to the Cold War (2001), War in Human Civilization (2006), named one of the best books of the year by The Times Literary Supplement, and Victorious and Vulnerable: Why Democracy Won in the 20th Century and How it is Still Imperilled (2010).