ABSTRACT

In the 1960s “the nation” began to come into its own academically, as a concept and a reality differentiated from “nation-state.” The latter as an historical formation in different forms (federal republic, constitutional monarchy, etc.) became widely actualized in the nineteenth century-so much so that by the mid-twentieth century it had established itself globally, in “old” nation-states of Europe as well as in post-colonial entities in Africa and Asia. Historians, of course, had made it one of their favorite domains to provide narratives of the nation-state, and “nationalism,” as more often than not nefarious activities of the nation-state toward its neighbors (and to “others” internally, perceived as not deserving full citizenship), received its fair share of attention (Hobsbawm 1990).