Beginning the World over Again: Past and Future in American Nationalism

Abstract

The theme of this book, history and the formation of national identity, goes to the heart of a debate that has framed our understanding of the origin and meaning of nationalism for the past two decades or more. The prevailing argument has been that nations are inventions of the modern age and that they rest their case for nationhood upon false claims to deep historic origins. The ‘modernist’ argument tells us nationalism involves ‘imagined communities’ that rest on ‘invented traditions’, fabricated historic myths, legends and heroes, all concocted to create an aura of legitimacy through historic perpetuity. Nationalist historical consciousness, according to the modernists, insinuates itself in the banalities of everyday life: national holidays, statues, memorials, the names of streets and plazas, history lessons in school, and through literature, art, music, all aimed at creating a popular illusion of eternal national distinction and magnificence. The historical narrative resulting from the deliberate efforts by nationalist elites is one that casts the nation as the natural expression of a people with origins deep in the past and a future without end.