On nationalism

doi:10.1017/CBO9781139196079.013

12 - On nationalism

from Part III - Politics

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 May 2015

Aviel Roshwald

Edited by

J. R. McNeill and

Kenneth Pomeranz

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J. R. McNeill: Affiliation:
Georgetown University, Washington DC
Kenneth Pomeranz: Affiliation:
University of Chicago

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Summary

Modern nationalism lies at the intersection of the universal and the particular. Nationalism, then, describes the aspiration or active effort to achieve, maintain, or expand the scope of, a nation's shared identity, self-governance, and/or power. The nineteenth and twentieth centuries witnessed the continued global spread and development of the twinned ideas of popular sovereignty and nationalism. The geopolitical implications of modern nationalism were highly diverse, contingent as they were on the infinitely variable relationship between political and ethno-linguistic borders, among other factors. Nationalism continued to be associated with movements of democratization, as in the 1848 revolutions in Europe, the 'Wilsonian moment' of 1919, or the Congress Party's struggle for Indian independence. For all of nationalism's ideological malleability, there were two elements. They are the idea of the nation as a horizontal community of equals; and the assertion that one's own nation was at least the equal of any other nation on the face of the planet.

Keywords

environmental change climate change anthropocene urbanization international politics global population growth industrialization human energy supply fossil fuels

Type: Chapter
Information: The Cambridge World History , pp. 306 - 330

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139196079.013 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2015

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