ABSTRACT
Nationalism is notoriously an elusive term. For that reason this introduction will begin with an essay in definition, before turning to the chapters reviewed here. As the title of this book suggests, nationalism is to be distinguished from nationhood, which is a feeling of belonging to, a sentiment of identification with, one’s nation. As such it is the precondition for and taproot of nationalism itself, but the latter is more cerebral, more self-conscious, and entails a programme of political action. In Anthony D. Smith’s careful definition, nationalism is ‘an ideological movement for the attainment and maintenance of autonomy, cohesion and individuality for a social group deemed by some of its members to constitute an actual or potential nation’.1 The nation should possess its own self-governing state, and this should be a cohesive and inclusive state, within whose boundaries as many members as possible of the nation are gathered. But in late nineteenth-century France, unlike much of Europe, these initial goals had already largely been accomplished. National independence was firmly established, at least juridically, and national cohesion substantially so, with the glaring exception of Alsace-Lorraine. From this point on then, what, apart from recovering the lost provinces, would form the agenda of a distinctively nationalist programme of policy?
