ABSTRACT
The studies which concentrate on modern European nationalism, such as those by E. Kedourie and H. Kohn, draw most of their examples from the nineteenth-century struggles of such countries as Prussia and Poland. This chapter argues that Scottish nationalism is a modern movement responding to modern social and political conditions. Most practising nationalists as opposed to political philosophers would not attempt to defend the concepts of ‘rights’ or ‘nature’. In practice nationalist movements use both sorts of appeals and it is this which gives rise to the ambiguity which surrounds the phenomenon. Many writers have referred to the central part that language has played in the extension of political nationalism. The reference to the tradition and values of the people is often accompanied in nationalist movements with an appeal to the race. In order to answer the questions one other characteristic concomitant of nationalist movements has to be mentioned: modernisation.
