Power and the Nation in European History

Len Scales, Oliver Zimmer

Cambridge University Press, Jun 9, 2005 - History - 402 pages

Few would doubt the central importance of 'the nation' in the making and unmaking of modern political communities. But when did 'the nation' first become a fundamental political factor? This book engages the expertise of modern historians in an attempt to resolve the issue. A deep rift still separates 'modernist' perspectives, which view the political nation as a phenomenon limited to modern, industrialized societies, from the views of scholars concerned with the pre-industrial world who insist, often vehemently, that nations were central to pre-modern political life also.

About the author

Len Scales is Lecturer in Medieval History at the University of Durham. He has written articles for various journals such as Past and Present and the Journal of Contemporary History.

Oliver Zimmer was educated at the University of Zurich (Lic. Phil. I) and at the London School of Economics and Political Science (PhD), and he began his academic career at the University of Durham in 1999. In 2005 he took up a University Lectureship (CUF) at the University of Oxford. Previous publications include A Contested Nation: History, Memory and Nationalism in Switzerland 1761 891 (Cambridge, 2003) and Nationalism in Europe, 1890 940 (2003).

Bibliographic information

• Title: Power and the Nation in European History
• Editors: Len Scales, Oliver Zimmer
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2005
• ISBN: 0521608309, 9780521608305
• Length: 402 pages
• Subjects: History / Europe / General; History / Europe / Medieval; History / Europe / Renaissance; History / Social History