13. Nationalism

European Civilization, 1648-1945 (HIST 202)

In light of the many ethnic and national conflicts of the twentieth century, the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918 appears less surprising than the fact that it remained intact for so long. National identity is not an essential characteristic of peoples, and in many cases in Europe it is a relatively recent invention. As such, there are many different characteristics according to which national communities can be defined, or, in Benedict Anderson's phrase, imagined. Along with religion and ethnicity, language has played a particularly important role in shaping the imaginary identification of individuals with abstract communities. No one factor necessarily determines this identification, as evidenced by modern countries such as Belgium and Switzerland that incorporate multiple linguistic and cultural groups in one national community.

00:00 - Chapter 1. The "Imagined Communities" of Nationalism: The Macedonian Example
08:24 - Chapter 2. The Construction of National Identities in the Nineteenth Century: Language and Consciousness
25:45 - Chapter 3. The Development of Nationalism in Eastern Europe: Lithuania and Belarus
37:53 - Chapter 4. Complex Identities: Multiple Languages in Belgium and Switzerland
44:00 - Chapter 5. The Balancing Act of the Austria-Hungarian Empire: Factors of Stability

Complete course materials are available at the Open Yale Courses website: http://open.yale.edu/courses

This course was recorded in Fall 2008.