ABSTRACT
In his perceptive exploration of the power and resilience of ethnonationalism, Walker Connor has stressed a number of recurring themes. One of these has been the ‘divorce between intellectual theory and the real world’ (Connor 1994: 28) that can explain part of the failure of many scholars to recognize the importance of nationalism in shaping some of the most fundamental conflicts of the past two centuries. Not all political and social scientists have ignored this central factor and some, singled out by Connor for their sound judgement, have been vindicated by the upsurge of nationalism many decades after their original predictions. Carlton Hayes’ Essays on Nationalism (1926) is one such volume whose insights were to act as a source of inspiration for Connor in the 1960s, when he began to publish his influential articles on ethnonationalism.
