Description
Book SynopsisNationalism and Revolution in Europe, 1763-1848 addresses enduring historiographical problems concerning the appearance of the first national movements in Europe and their role in the crises associated with the Age of Revolution. Considerable detail is supplied to the picture of Enlightenment era intellectual and cultural pursuits in which the nation was featured as both an object of theoretical interest and site of practice. In doing so, the work provides a major corrective to depictions of the period characteristic of earlier ventures -- including those by authors as notable as Hobsbawm, Gellner, and Anderson -- while offering an advance in narrative coherence by portraying how developments in the sphere of ideas influenced the terms of political debate in France and elsewhere in the years preceding the upheavals of 1789-1815. Subsequent chapters explore the composite nature of the revolutions which followed and the challenges of determining the relative capacity of the three chief sources of contemporary unrest -- constitutional, national, and social -- to inspire extra-legal challenges to the Restoration status quo.
Trade Review"
Nationalism and Revolution in Europe, 1763-1848 offers a fresh perspective on the rise and spread of nationalism in Europe and its relation to revolutionary movements. Adopting an intellectual history approach, Kostantaras shows that the phenomenon was more variegated, polyvalent, and multicentric then previously appreciated. This book is a must-read for all students of nationalism and revolution." - Dr. Thomas W. Gallant, Professor of Modern Greek History & Archaeology, University of California, San Diego "Especially geared towards those with cultural and linguistic interests, Dean Kostantaras has produced a learned and sophisticated examination, drawn from examples over nine decades of European history, about the origin of the concept of ‘the nation’." - James J. Sack, Professor Emeritus of History, University of Illinois at Chicago
Table of ContentsIntroduction
Enlightenment-Era Representations of the Nation
The Enlightenment Nation as a Site of Practice
The French Revolution and Napoleonic Inheritance
The Greek Revolution of 1821
Revolutions of 1830
Revolutions of 1848
Epilogue
Bibliography
Index
