| Reimagining the Nation-State: The Contested Terrains of Nation-Building Contributor(s): Mac Laughlin, Jim (Author) |
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ISBN: 0745313647 ISBN-13: 9780745313641 Publisher: Pluto Press (UK) OUR PRICE: $38.00 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: February 2001 Annotation: Traditional approaches to nationalism tend to exaggerate the antiquity of the nation-state while ignoring the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century origins of nation building in Western Europe and North America. Jim Mac Laughlin argues for a more grassroots, place-centered approach to understanding nation building. Mac Laughlin assesses competing models of nationalism and nation building in the works of key theorists such as Gellner, Hecter, and Nairn, and puts forward an alternative dialectical model grounded in historical and geographical specificity. Using Ireland as a case study, he locates Irish nationalism and Ulster unionism in a variety of clearly defined regional and social class contexts. Emphasizing the strategic and symbolic significance of "place," Mac Laughlin identifies certain areas as nationalist or unionist heartlands while others remain contested terrain over which both sides continue to disagree. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Political Science | History & Theory - General - History | Europe - Ireland - Political Science | Comparative Politics |
| Dewey: 941.5 |
| LCCN: 00009418 |
| Series: Contemporary Irish Studies |
| Physical Information: 0.67" H x 5.5" W x 8.5" (0.83 lbs) 304 pages |
| Themes: - Cultural Region - Ireland |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: This book assesses competing modes of nation-building and nationalism through a critical reappraisal of the works of key theorists such as Benedict Anderson and Eric Hobsbawm. Exploring the processes of nation building from a variety of ethnic and social class contexts, it focuses on the contested terrains within which nationalist ideologies are often rooted. Mac Laughlin offers a theoretical and empirical analysis of nation building, taking as a case study the historical connections between Ireland and Great Britain in the clash between 'big nation' historic British nationalism on the one hand, and minority Irish nationalism on the other. Locating the origins of the historic nation in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Mac Laughlin emphasises the difficulties, and specifities, of minority nationalisms in the nineteenth century. In so doing he calls for a place-centred approach which recognises the symbolic and socio-economic significance of territory to the different scales of nation-building. Exploring the evolution of Irish Nationalism, Reimaging the Nation State also shows how minority nations can challenge the hegemony of dominant states and threaten the territorial integrity of historic nations. |
Contributor Bio(s): Maclaughlin, Jim: - Jim Mac Laughlin is a political geographer and social scientist. He is the author of Reimagining the Nation-State: The Contested Terrains of Nation Building, also published by Pluto Press. |