The first comprehensive critical examination in any language of the German national tradition of historiography This is the first comprehensive critical examination in any language of the German national tradition of historiography. It analyzes the basic theoretical assumptions of the German historians of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and relates these assumptions to political thought and action. The German national tradition of historiography had its beginnings in the reaction against the Enlightenment and the French Revolution of 1789. This historiography rejected the rationalistic theory of natural law as universally valid and held that all human values must be understood within the context of the historical flux. But it maintained at the same time the Lutheran doctrine that existing political institutions had a rational basis in the will of God, though only a few of these historians were unqualified conservatives. Most argued for liberal institutions within the authoritarian state, but considered that constitutional liberties had to be subordinated to foreign policy—a subordination that was to have tragic results. Mr. Iggers first defines Historismus or historicism and analyzes its origins. Then he traces the transformation of German historical thought from Herder's cosmopolitan culture-oriented nationalism to exclusive state-centered nationalism of the War of Liberation and of national unification. He considers the development of historicism in the writings of such thinkers as von Humboldt, Ranke, Dilthey, Max Weber, Troeltsch, and Meinecke; and he discusses the radicalization and ultimate disintegration of the historicist position, showing how its inadequacies contributed to the political débâcle of the Weimar Republic and the rise of National Socialism. No one who wants to fully understand the political development of national Germany can neglect this study.

The nineteenth-century development -- and later consequences -- of the imagined relationship between ancient India and modern German culture.

Since the end of the internationalist Soviet experiment in 1989, nationalism is now recognized as a positive, vital force in modern political, cultural, and social life-if kept in check from excess. As a result of the explosion of nationalism, there has been a veritable resurgence of nationalism studies. This proliferation calls for a survey of instruments which have been developed by scholars for the study of nationalism. The Encyclopaedia of Nationalism brings together leading scholars in nationalism studies to survey this complex phenomenon.With over one hundred entries the Encyclopaedia of Nationalism offers a complete and concise set of tools for the study of nationalism in a single volume. The focus throughout is theoretical, and for this reason particular nationalist movements and individual leaders are treated only as illustrative historical and contemporary cases in numerous entries. The Encyclopaedia is organized in an alphabetical sequence of entries, each of which includes a short bibliography for further reading. The reader will find in-depth discussions of the work of modern theoreticians of nationalism.The defining figures of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries including Herder, Rousseau, Fichte, Marx, and Renan. Conceptual entries, are treated historically and sociologically. Crucial influential ideas and phenomena that continually redefine themselves with changing historical circumstances, among them, anti-Semitism, art and nationalism, assimilation, class and nation, decolonization, ethnic competition, genocide, language and nation, multiculturalism, religion and nation, state and nation, and xenophobia are treated in depth. A special attraction of this volume is its essay-long entries, many of which have been written by the scholars who developed them.The Encyclopaedia of Nationalism discusses in lucid terms, from an interdisciplinary perspective, the central issues, debates, concepts, and theories available to students and scholars of nationalism. As such it is the most comprehensive and authoritative guide to the subject in all its varied manifestations and implications. It will be an essential tool for historians, political scientists, sociologists, and scholars of the history of ideas.

This book discusses the historical record of the idea that language is associated with national identity, demonstrating that different applications of this idea have consistently produced certain types of results. Nationalist movements aimed at 'unification', based upon languages which vary greatly at the spoken level, e.g. German, Italian, Pan-Turkish and Arabic, have been associated with aggression, fascism and genocide, while those based upon relatively homogeneous spoken languages, e.g. Czech, Norwegian and Ukrainian, have resulted in national liberation and international stability. It is also shown that religion can be more important to national identity than language, but only for religious groups which were understood in premodern times to be national rather than universal or doctrinal, e.g. Jews, Armenians, Maronites, Serbs, Dutch and English; this is demonstrated with discussions of the Holocaust, the Armenian Genocide, the civil war in Lebanon and the breakup of Yugoslavia, the United Netherlands and the United Kingdom.