Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
SINCE 1780
Programme, Myth, Reality
ERIC HOBSBAWM
Kafyra Kyriaki
Mitronatsiou Anastasia
Garozi Eleftheria
E.HOBSBAWM BIOGRAPHY
Born in 1917 in Egypt
Historian and author
Marxist
Member of Communist
party
Lecturer at Birkbeck
college, visiting
professor at Stanford
and the New School for
Social Research
Fellow of the British
Academy
Work: The social
construction in the
context of the nation
state
Introduction
Nations→ not older than the 18th century
No satisfactory objective or subjective
criteria to define nation
The real nation can be recognized only a
posteriori
Nationalism: principle which holds that the
political and national unit should be
congruent
The nation belongs to a particular and
historically recent period
Nations do not make states and
nationalisms but the other way
around
The three phases of national movement in
the 19th century:
→ A purely cultural, literary and folklore
The nation as a novelty
Modernity : the basic characteristic of
nation
The meaning of nation up to 1925
Equation nation=state=people
The revolutionary-democratic concept
The nationalist concept
The locus of nation in the theories of the
liberal bourgeoisies and intellectuals
from 1830-1880
Adam Smith: "nation: no
more than a territorial
state"
Molinari: division of
humanity in autonomous
nation sis essentially
economic
Hamilton: linked nation-
state-economy
List: accomplishing
economic development
The principle of nationality
applies only to
nationalities of certain
size
The building of nations is a
process of expansion
The 3 criteria for a people to be classed as
a nation:
→ Historic association with a current state
and flag
Nationalist movements
multiplying in regions
where they had been
previously unknown e.g.
among the Macedonians
and Albanians in the
Balkans
In the second half of the
century-ethnic
nationalism received
enormous reinforcements-
NATI in practice from the
increasingly massive
ONA geographical migrations
LIST of peoples
Nationalism gained ground
MOV so rapidly from the 1870’s
EME to 1914. It was a function
NTS of both social and
political changes
The apogee of nationalism,
1918 - 1950
ü “Principle of nationalities” declared by the
American President Woodrow Wilson as an
alternative to Bolshevism.
ü Unrealistic content of the Wilsonian principle
when tested in practice. Explicit lack of
tolerance towards minorities in the newly
established nation – states of the Central and
Eastern Europe in the intent of creating
nationally homogenous and territorially solid
independent states.
ü Divergence between the “national idea” and the
national consciousness of the people involved
THE
The decolonization process was more a result of anti-
APO imperialist attitudes than it was nationalistic sentiments,
GEE making the huge number of states born after 1945
unclassifiable as nations.
OF Nationalism in Europe prior to 1914: Unifying meaning.
NATI Nationalism in Europe after 1914: Separatist meaning.
Mass media contribution to identity formation after 1918.
ONA Mid-war nationalism: Fascist nationalism based on socio-
LISM economic grounds.
The development of class consciousness led, in turn, to the
1918 development of mass politics which made nations possible.
-
1950
ü Strong ties of the Left
both with anti-
fascist nationalism
and anti-imperialist
movements in
colonial countries.
ü Economic
mobilizations, mass
migrations and
large-scale warfare
have led masses of
men and women
into unfamiliar
worlds where they
find no easy
connection.
Subsequently,
nationalistic politics
turns ugly much like
class politics.
Nationalism in the late 20th
century
ü Historic roots of the separatist nationalism
in Europe.
ü Collapse of the Soviet Union and of the
Balkan communist regimes.
ü Content of nationalism during the 19th and
the early 20th centuries.
ü In the late 20th century, national identity
movements are situated at the point of
intersection of politics, technology and
social transformation.
ü The “Other” seen as a potential threat to
the people’s and the country’s integrity.
ü Essence of nation – building after World War II.
Rise of separatist and nationalistic
movements.
ü New role of national economies in the global
economic system.
ü Position and strategy of the local, separatist
European nationalisms within the European
Union (EU) setting.
ü Diminished value and power of nationalism in
the late 20th century when compared with the
19th and early 20th centuries.
ü Continuing decline of the political role of the
nation and of nationalism towards the end of
the 20th century since new supranational
structures have now come into fore.
Thank you!