ABSTRACT
Nationalism, in both its old and new forms, is a historical phenomenon of the utmost complexity, suffused with paradox. The rise of national states in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries was a reaction against the rule of the Church. Nationalism became in political life what faith had been in religion. Patriotism is in political life what faith is in religion, and it stands to the domestic feelings and to home-sickness as faith to fanaticism and to superstition. Modern nationalism was an extension of the city-state idea on a greater scale. The same bonds of common language, religion, customs, and heroes, the same patriotism, the same xenophobia—all these were combined to form the stuff of nationalism. Among the varying antinational movements may be included, in addition to international socialism, such differing concepts as the Fascist International, the Commonwealth ideal, the United Nations, and European Union.
