ABSTRACT

This chapter outlines the three principal schools of thought that characterize Anglo-American debates on nationalism. Formed around Umut Özkirimli's theories of nationalism, the schools of primordialism, modernism, and ethno-symbolism are considered. The chapter describes de Gaulle's understanding of nations to these three approaches, arguing that his understanding does not fit within Hans Kohn and Edward Shils' ideas on primordialism, nor does it belong with modernist thinkers such as Ernest Gellner and Benedict Anderson. The chapter explains the Anglo-American literature on nationalism. Although the Anglo-American world is quick to be somewhat dismissive of de Gaulle, often preferring to see his military uniform as a reflection and extension of the will to fascist dictatorship, the foreign policy that France pursued under his leadership is better understood, at least in part, by his 'history disease' and the political expression of this as ethno-symbolic nationalism.