The Cult of the Nation in France: Inventing Nationalism, 1680-1800 (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780674012370)

Using eighteenth-century France as a case study, David Bell offers an important new argument about the origins of nationalism. Before the eighteenth century, the very idea of nation-building--a central component of nationalism--did not exist. During this period, leading French intellectual and political figures came to see perfect national unity as a critical priority, and so sought ways to endow all French people with the same language, laws, customs, and values. The period thus gave rise to the first large-scale nationalist program in history.

Author: David A. Bell
ISBN-10: 0674012372
ISBN-13: 9780674012370
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Language: English
Published: 09/01/2003
Pages: 320
Format: Paperback
Weight: 1.00lbs
Size: 9.82h x 5.58w x 0.83d