Abstract Eric Hobsbawm's Nations and Nationalism since 1780 effectively describes the novelty and artificiality of the modern nation and nation?state, emphasizing the role that cultural and political elites have played in constructing nations, especially through nationally homogeneous schools and partly invented national traditions and histories. By defining nationalism as the congruence between nation and state, however, Hobsbawm gives insufficient attention to the sense in which nationalism goes beyond national patriotism to express chauvinism, xenophobia, and paranoia. He is also too sanguine (...) about the ethnic conflicts that will inevitably arise in the multilingual societies he endorses. (shrink)

The nation is a mythic construct whose primary component is a shared language (often one that has been manufactured for the purpose). In the context of popular sovereignty, shared language, like other shared traits, brings with it a seemingly irresistible capacity to demonize those who do not share it. This capacity is faithfully enlisted by politicians looking for means of mass mobilization. The democratic nation‐state therefore displays xenophobic tendencies; yet the urge to combat these tendencies fixes, as permanent and normative (...) “identities,” the very myths—artificial and eminently mutable— that start the process of xenophobia in the first place. (shrink)

Erratum In the Review Historical Individualism by Sascha Talmor, which appeared in Vol. 7 No. 6, 1986, p. 661, line 2, Maurice Mauss should read Marcel Mauss. The editors and publishers apologise for this error.