Ranging widely across countries and centuries, National Thought in Europe critically analyzes the growth of nationalism from its beginnings in medieval ethnic prejudice to the romantic era’s belief in a national soul. A fertile pan-European exchange of ideas, often rooted in literature, led to a notion of a nation’s cultural individuality that transformed the map of Europe. By looking deeply at the cultural contexts of nationalism, Joep Leerssen not only helps readers understand the continent’s past, but he also provides a surprising perspective on contemporary European identity politics.

List of Illustrations
Preface
Introduction
 
Source Traditions
Wilderness, Exoticism and the State's Order: Medieval Views
The Renaissance and Democratic Primitivism
Anthropology and the Nation: Character and Climate in the Seventeenth Century
Politics and the Nation: Patriotism and Democracy in Enlightenment Thought
The Nation Empowered: Popular Sovereignty and National Unity in the French Revolution
Culture and the Nation: Literature, the Public Sphere and Anti-French Relativism
 
The Politics of National Identity
Napoleon and the Rise of Political Communication
Napoleon and the Rise of National Historicism
Restoration and the Nation-State
Nationalism as State Centralism
Nationalism as Unification
Nationalism as Separatism
 
Identity Rampant
The Nation's Sources, the State's Borders: Culture into Geopolitics
The Nationalization of Culture
Ethnic Nationalism and Racism
Versailles and after
 
Aftermath and Conclusions: Twentieth-Century Issues
Tethering National Sovereignty: Transnationalism and Internationalism
Postnationalism: After the Cold War
From Nation-State to Civic State?
 
Appendices
Languages, Alphabets, Dialects and Language Politics
Source References
Bibliography
Index