Introduction

In the Western Hemisphere, going from North to South, three settings illustrate the kindling of nationalist fervor. In North America the period evidences the militant nationalism of a new generation of French-Canadians in Quebec who opt for a new collective identity as Quebecois in preference to an older designation as Canadiens. In Eastern Europe the Solidarity workers’ movement rekindled Polish nationalism which has has so many glorious and so many tragic pages from Kosciusko to Lech Walesa. A short while before Solidarity, the election of Pope John Paul II had renewed Polish ethnic pride at home and abroad. The study of nationalist movements in advanced societies began to get important scholarly interest among social scientists somewhere at the start of the 1970s. This chapter also presents an over view of key concepts discussed in this book.