Conclusions

Abstract

I suggested in the previous chapter that many aspects of identity in the West European stateless nations that prevailed through the centuries have become greatly attenuated (notably the power of religion), while the importance of language has diminished in several cases. If the “carriers” no longer carry, why has the sense of identity they engendered not diminished? Why has an adherence to the ideology of the sole national language, so strongly advocated in France, not risen in other West European countries, if regional languages are less spoken? Why, even in France, where educational policy and economic accommodation have so reduced the ranks of non-French speakers, is there still a sense of reserve in attachment to France, which is strongest in Corsica and Brittany? (It may be objected that flaming patriotism of the textbook variety is rather out of style in twenty-first century Europe.)