Abstract/Summary

Nationalism is a complex social phenomenon with the nation as its object. In its modern, ideological manifestation of an otherwise human, natural attachment to the life-giving forces of parenthood and land, observable throughout human history, nationalism has its roots in both the Enlightenment and the Romantic reaction to it. It found its earliest expressions in the American and French revolutions, and in the multiplicity of movements for national independence and national unity which have marked the modern world, from the nineteenth century to the present day. Given the rise of global connections and transnational communities, following World War II, some scholars have urged the abandonment of the assumption of a world ordered into nation-states. Nevertheless, nationalism continues to be a powerful idea that inspires and mobilizes groups throughout the contemporary world.