The Cult of the Nation in France: Inventing Nationalism, 1680-1800

By David A. Bell

Book Overview

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.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0674012372
• ISBN13: 9780674012370
• Release Date: September 2003
• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 1.04 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.6" x 9.8"