ABSTRACT
Opinions on the causes of the rise of aggressive nationalism in our age are widely divergent owing to differences in political ideology, or in the sociological or philosophical outlook. Conservatives point out that the rise of nationalism coincided with the decline of monarchies and religion and that it was precisely certain modern achievements like our technique of production and propaganda which have made possible the fury of present national enmities and national wars. The spirit of liberalism, democracy and socialism has in the course of time undergone great changes. Modern democracy, though opposed to aggression and conquest, approved of war for the defence of democracy or for national liberation. Modern nationalism exhibits a puzzling combination of irrational and rational elements, and its very strength reposes in the union of mental primitiveness with all the instruments offered by the progress of science and technique.
