ABSTRACT
Roberto Michels' analysis of nationalism as the animating myth of the revolution of the twentieth century remains arresting, far better than anything found in traditional Marxism. He gave evidence of an interest in the nature and function of nationalism as a mobilizing sentiment. As early as 1903, Michels attempted a treatment of nationalism and national sentiment that would make both compatible with the proletarian internationalism that presumably animated the syndicalism of his time. At a time when socialists had made a fetish of their anti-nationalism and their "proletarian internationalism", Michels reminded them that socialism bore within itself a long tradition of nationalism. As a consequence, Michels came to conceive the "syndicates" of workers, in which he early had invested so much confidence, as cells of a more inclusive organic structure: the nation. That subordination found expression in Fascist "corporativism". The work of Michels very clearly traces the itinerary followed by many syndicalists from the radical left-wing to Fascism.
