Using eighteenth-century France as a case study, David Bell offers an important new argument about the origins of nationalism. Before the eighteenth century, the very idea of nation-building-a central component of nationalism-did not exist. During this period, leading French intellectual and political figures came to see perfect national unity as a critical priority, and so sought ways to endow all French people with the same language, laws, customs, and values. The period thus gave rise to the first large-scale nationalist program in history.
| ISBN: | 9780674012370 |
| Publication date: | 2nd September 2003 |
| Author: | David A Bell |
| Publisher: | Harvard University Press |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Pagination: | 304 pages |
| Genres: |
History |