ABSTRACT
To what period, if any, should we properly assign the origins and reproduction of nations? This is the subject of one of the most searching debates in the study of ethnicity and nationalism. The importance of this question is twofold. In the first place, the answer is likely to determine whether nations are phenomena specific to a particular historical period; and in the second place, it will reveal how deeply embedded nations are and to what extent they are likely to persist or give way to new kinds of human association. In the current debates about ‘post-modernity’, ‘globalisation’ and ‘cultural imperialism’, the problem of ‘dating the nation’ becomes a matter of fundamental significance.
