ABSTRACT
In the Western model of national identity, nations were seen as culture communities, whose members were united, if not made homogeneous, by common historical memories, myths, symbols and traditions. The diverse theorists of the nation and nationalism are all unanimous in emphasising the great role that the concept of history and the historians have played in informing nationalism. This chapter demonstrates the strategic importance that nationalism could have as a political idea in shaping the concept of national history. The case studies are chosen from the Hungarian historiography. The concept of ethnic nationalism seemed to be a better tool for matching the political ends. This demanded some revision in the ruling historical paradigm, which was then intimately affected by the German Geistesgeschichte. During the late 1940s and early 1950s, at a moment when the canonisation of a truly Marxist scholarship was on the agenda in history writing in Hungary, the old options started partly to dictate the accessible historical canon.
