Book contents
- The Cambridge History of Nationhood and Nationalism
- The Cambridge History of Nationhood and Nationalism
- The Cambridge History of Nationhood and Nationalism
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- General Introduction
- Part i The Politics of Ethnicity, Nationhood, and Belonging in the Settings of Classical Civilizations
- Part ii Paradigm Shifts and Turning Points in the Era of Globalization, 1500 to the Present
- 7 Colonial Expansion and the Making of Nations: The Spanish Case
- 8 The Reformation and National Identity
- 9 Europe’s Eighteenth Century and the Quest for the Nation’s Origins
- 10 Empire, War, and Racial Hierarchy in the Making of the Atlantic Revolutionary Nations
- 11 The Rise of the Charismatic Nation: Romantic and Risorgimento Nationalism, Europe, 1800–1914
- 12 Revolution and Independence in Spanish America
- 13 A Tale of Two Cities: The American Civil War
- 14 The Cycle of Inevitability in Imperial and Republican Identities in China
- 15 Colonial Subjects and the Struggle for Self-Determination, 1880–1918
- 16 The First World War
- 17 Anticolonialism and Nationalism in the French Empire
- 18 Patriotism in the Second World War: Comparative Perspectives on Countries under Axis Occupation
- 19 Decolonization and the Cold War
- 20 1968: The Death of Nationalism?
- Conclusion to Part II
- Index
- References
14 - The Cycle of Inevitability in Imperial and Republican Identities in China
from Part ii - Paradigm Shifts and Turning Points in the Era of Globalization, 1500 to the Present
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 October 2023
- The Cambridge History of Nationhood and Nationalism
- The Cambridge History of Nationhood and Nationalism
- The Cambridge History of Nationhood and Nationalism
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- General Introduction
- Part i The Politics of Ethnicity, Nationhood, and Belonging in the Settings of Classical Civilizations
- Part ii Paradigm Shifts and Turning Points in the Era of Globalization, 1500 to the Present
- 7 Colonial Expansion and the Making of Nations: The Spanish Case
- 8 The Reformation and National Identity
- 9 Europe’s Eighteenth Century and the Quest for the Nation’s Origins
- 10 Empire, War, and Racial Hierarchy in the Making of the Atlantic Revolutionary Nations
- 11 The Rise of the Charismatic Nation: Romantic and Risorgimento Nationalism, Europe, 1800–1914
- 12 Revolution and Independence in Spanish America
- 13 A Tale of Two Cities: The American Civil War
- 14 The Cycle of Inevitability in Imperial and Republican Identities in China
- 15 Colonial Subjects and the Struggle for Self-Determination, 1880–1918
- 16 The First World War
- 17 Anticolonialism and Nationalism in the French Empire
- 18 Patriotism in the Second World War: Comparative Perspectives on Countries under Axis Occupation
- 19 Decolonization and the Cold War
- 20 1968: The Death of Nationalism?
- Conclusion to Part II
- Index
- References
Summary
Nationalism rewrites the state. It rewrites authoritarian states as democracies. It rewrites democracies as authoritarian states. Whatever its cause and whatever its ends, it has been central to narratives of state transformation since the seventeenth century. Nevertheless, it is not a primeval force, is not ever-residing. It is derivative, and the historian who sorts out the roots and branches of an apparently nationalist phenomenon will discover that it disappears under scrutiny. It is, like centripetal force, an ideation that explicates but is not itself real.
Nationalism is able to rewrite the state because it is the accumulation of manifest internal opposition to an existing regime, based on the premise that the present form misrepresents the nature and interests of a defined population. In any nationalist movement, opposition is redefinition. For such opposition to thrive, it must draw upon established public terms of legitimacy, historical claims, and the credible definition of national solidarity in opposition to its governance.
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- The Cambridge History of Nationhood and Nationalism , pp. 301 - 328Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023