- Antwerp University
Department of History
City Campus SJ.208
Sint-Jacobsmarkt 13
BE-2000 Antwerpen
Belgium
Maarten Van Ginderachter
University of Antwerp, History, Faculty Member
- Universiteit Antwerpen, History, Faculty Memberadd
- Nationalism, Nations and nationalism, Belgian History, European History, Social Democracy, Banal nationalism, and 20 moreWorking-Class History, Belle Epoque, Nineteenth Century Studies, History from Below, Socialism, National Identity, Ethnicity, Ethnicity and National Identity, Regionalism, Social History, Modern History, Nineteenth Century, History, Language and Identity, Identity and Alterity, Labour history, Ego documents, Popular Culture, Working Classes, and Cultural Historyedit
- Maarten Van Ginderachter (b. 1973) is a Professor of History at Antwerp University. He specializes in the social hist... moreMaarten Van Ginderachter (b. 1973) is a Professor of History at Antwerp University. He specializes in the social history of nations and nationalism in modern Europe.
He is the author of 'The Everyday Nationalism of Workers: A Social History of Modern Belgium' (Stanford University Press, 2019); and co-editor of 'National indifference and the history of nationalism in modern Europe' (Routledge, 2019, co-edited with Jon Fox), 'Everyday nationalism’s evidence problem' (themed section of Nations and Nationalism, vol. 24, issue 3, 2018, co-edited with Jon Fox), and 'Nationhood from below. Europe in the long nineteenth century' (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2012, co-edited with Marnix Beyen).
A Fulbright scholar, he has held visiting positions at Harvard University, UC Berkeley and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.edit
World history of the Netherlands and Flanders: about the (im)possibility of an open, global, and non-nationalist history for a wider audience Following the success of the Histoire mondiale de la France, 2018 saw the publication of the... more
World history of the Netherlands and Flanders: about the (im)possibility of an open, global, and non-nationalist history for a wider audience
Following the success of the Histoire mondiale de la France, 2018 saw the publication of the World history of the Netherlands and World history of Flanders. After the French example both volumes have three goals: to bring history to a wider audience; to give a global reading to the national past; and to offer a non-nationalist and non-teleological perspective. Eminently readable, both books succeed in their first goal. The second ambition is fulfilled by the World history of the Netherlands, but in the World history of Flanders the global dimension is underdeveloped. The verdict on their third aim is double-edged. Both volumes explicitly claim to be open-ended and reject traditional nationalist tropes, but several Dutch and-to a lesser extent-Flemish chapters have a subtext of banal nationalism. The genre of public history seems to be particularly susceptible to this type of teleology.
Following the success of the Histoire mondiale de la France, 2018 saw the publication of the World history of the Netherlands and World history of Flanders. After the French example both volumes have three goals: to bring history to a wider audience; to give a global reading to the national past; and to offer a non-nationalist and non-teleological perspective. Eminently readable, both books succeed in their first goal. The second ambition is fulfilled by the World history of the Netherlands, but in the World history of Flanders the global dimension is underdeveloped. The verdict on their third aim is double-edged. Both volumes explicitly claim to be open-ended and reject traditional nationalist tropes, but several Dutch and-to a lesser extent-Flemish chapters have a subtext of banal nationalism. The genre of public history seems to be particularly susceptible to this type of teleology.
Research Interests: Public History, Historiography, Nationalism, World History, History of The Netherlands, and 14 moreNational Identity, Medieval Low Countries, Global History, Belgian History, History of Nationalism, 17th Century Netherlandish Art, Nations and nationalism, History of Nationalism and Nation-Building, History of the Spanish-Habsburg Netherlands, Dutch History, History of the Low Countries, Netherlands, The Netherlands, and Banal nationalism
"This well-written, innovative, and engaging study pushes us to reorient our understanding not only of language and national identity in Belgium, but also how to go about studying them. Students unfamiliar with Belgian history will have... more
"This well-written, innovative, and engaging study pushes us to reorient our understanding not only of language and national identity in Belgium, but also how to go about studying them. Students unfamiliar with Belgian history will have no problem jumping right into this book, for Van Ginderachter concisely introduces and contextualizes all key issues. One could even say that it serves as a kind of primer on modern Belgian history. It will be useful not only to readers interested in Belgian history, but also to those studying nationalism, language, ethnicity, and labor movements in modern European history." (Matthew G. Stanard in Journal of Social History)
"The relationships of workers and the modern labor movement to social categories such as nationality, ethnicity, class, and religion are complex and poorly understood, usually treated separately from everyday experiences. Drawing on a wide range of sources, including a unique set of 'proletarian tweets,' this superb book both illuminates the Belgian case and provides a model for future research." (Advance praise by John Breuilly, LSE)
"The relationships of workers and the modern labor movement to social categories such as nationality, ethnicity, class, and religion are complex and poorly understood, usually treated separately from everyday experiences. Drawing on a wide range of sources, including a unique set of 'proletarian tweets,' this superb book both illuminates the Belgian case and provides a model for future research." (Advance praise by John Breuilly, LSE)
Research Interests: European History, Modern History, Cultural History, Nineteenth Century Studies, Working Classes, and 15 morePopular Culture, Nationalism, Central European history, Habsburg Studies, Political History, National Identity, Nationalism And State Building, Language and Identity, Social History, Socialism, Ethnicity, Belgian History, Nations and nationalism, Belgium, and Austria-Hungary
This volume tackles one of the basic questions in nationalism studies as formulated by Katherine Verdery: How do people become national? To examine how the nation entered ordinary people’s ‘insides’, this book focuses on their affective... more
This volume tackles one of the basic questions in nationalism studies as formulated by Katherine Verdery: How do people become national? To examine how the nation entered ordinary people’s ‘insides’, this book focuses on their affective lives. As such its objective is to bridge a double gap: the neglect of both emotions and the everyday realm in historical research on nationalism. On the one hand, Benedict Anderson’s question ‘why [do nations] command such profound emotional legitimacy’ , has long befuddled historians, who have been late-comers to the so-called 'affective turn'. On the other hand, historians have been taken to task for obsessing over the bells and whistles of nationalism and over-concentrating on the most articulate social groups. This collection of essays takes up the gauntlet. By analysing how nationalism harnesses, produces and feeds on emotions to pull ordinary people into its orbit, it refutes Anthony D. Smith’s critique that everyday nationalism research is necessarily imbued with an ‘ahistorical blocking presentism’. Using a variety of sources, methods and cases, ranging from Spain and the Netherlands during the age of Revolutions, nineteenth-century France and Belgium over interwar Italy, Germany and Romania, to war-torn Finland, and post-WWII Poland, this volume demonstrates that emotions are integral to understanding the everyday pull of nationalism on ordinary people.
Research Interests: Modern History, French History, Modern Italian History, Romanian History, Polish History, and 14 moreHistory Of Emotions, Nationalism, Spanish History, Regionalism, Belgian History, Autobiographical Self-Representation, Nations and nationalism, Autobiographical Memory, Emotions, Dutch History, Finnish History, Occitan Language, Ego documents, and Personal Narratives
This dossier aims to problematize the widespread understanding of ethnic cleavages as the hard core undergirding national conflict. As such it questions the rise of ethnic nationalism during the late nineteenth century as the direct cause... more
This dossier aims to problematize the widespread understanding of ethnic cleavages as the hard core undergirding national conflict. As such it questions the rise of ethnic nationalism during the late nineteenth century as the direct cause of the dawn of Europe's 'oppressed peoples' after 1918. The different contributions evaluate the status of the First World War as the breakthrough moment of Wilsonian self-determination within the multi-ethnic states and empires in Europe. In this respect they investigate the recent powerful thesis propounded by scholars of national indifference in Central Europe that it was the unprecedented disruption of the Great War that politicized ethnicity as never before and made it into a marker of groupness rather than a mere social category, to use Rogers Brubaker's terms. The articles in this dossier also contribute to recent investigations that focus on how European empires tried to accommodate nationalism and how nationalist movements in and outside of Europe used the disruption of the war and Wilson's plea for self-determination to ask for independence. These articles demonstrate how the specific developments of war and revolution produced particular understandings of the general idea of self-determination. The Wilsonian discourse as such had a breakthrough in 1918 when the destruction of Austria-Hungary generally became accepted as an allied postwar goal. Movements worldwide adopted self-determination as a goal and standard, but as this dossier demonstrates, all kinds of actors used Wilson’s words for their many purposes, such that one cannot speak of a coherent and meaningful Wilsonian moment.
The dossier contains the following articles:
• Storm, Eric and Van Ginderachter, Maarten, Introduction. Questioning the Wilsonian Moment. The Role of Ethnicity and Nationalism in the Dissolution of European Empires from the Belle Époque through the First World War
• Christoph Mick (University of Warwick), Legality, ethnicity and violence in Austrian Galicia, 1890-1920
• Martin O’Donoghue (National University of Ireland), ‘Ireland’s Independence Day’: The Fall of the Irish Parliamentary Party in 1918
• Jan Rybak (European University Institute), ‘Universal Freedom’ and the ‘English Declaration’: Watershed Moments for Radical Jewish Politics
• Jasper Heinzen (University of York), Making democracy safe for tribal homelands? Self-determination and political regionalism in Weimar Germany
The dossier contains the following articles:
• Storm, Eric and Van Ginderachter, Maarten, Introduction. Questioning the Wilsonian Moment. The Role of Ethnicity and Nationalism in the Dissolution of European Empires from the Belle Époque through the First World War
• Christoph Mick (University of Warwick), Legality, ethnicity and violence in Austrian Galicia, 1890-1920
• Martin O’Donoghue (National University of Ireland), ‘Ireland’s Independence Day’: The Fall of the Irish Parliamentary Party in 1918
• Jan Rybak (European University Institute), ‘Universal Freedom’ and the ‘English Declaration’: Watershed Moments for Radical Jewish Politics
• Jasper Heinzen (University of York), Making democracy safe for tribal homelands? Self-determination and political regionalism in Weimar Germany
Research Interests:
National indifference is one of the most innovative notions historians have brought to the study of nationalism in recent years. The concept questions the mass character of nationalism in East Central Europe at the turn of the nineteenth... more
National indifference is one of the most innovative notions historians have brought to the study of nationalism in recent years. The concept questions the mass character of nationalism in East Central Europe at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth century. Ordinary people were not in thrall to the nation; they were often indifferent, ambivalent or opportunistic when dealing with issues of nationhood.
As with all ground-breaking research, the literature on national indifference has not only revolutionized how we understand nationalism, over time, it has also revealed a new set of challenges. This volume brings together experienced scholars with the next generation, in a collaborative effort to push the geographic, historical, and conceptual boundaries of national indifference 2.0.
The first critical intervention of this volume is geographical, by extending the analysis beyond the original setting of national indifference in East Central Europe. This collection incorporates a much wider array of cases from Belgium and France in the west, to the former Habsburg territories in Central and Southern Europe, and finally to Poland, Romania, Ukraine, and the former Soviet Union in the east. Second, the volume re-periodizes national indifference. It was not only a nineteenth-century phenomenon, reducible to a short-lived developmental stage of nationalism. Rather, it survived well into the twentieth century, even into the post–Second World War age of nationalism. The third intervention is conceptual. We expand and disaggregate the national indifference paradigm to develop a more flexible and variegated approach that can better account for regional and historical variation.
This collection contains the following chapters:
- Introduction. National indifference and the history of nationalism in modern Europe
Maarten Van Ginderachter and Jon Fox /
- Too much on their mind. Impediments and limitations of the national cultural project in nineteenth-century Belgium
Tom Verschaffel /
- From national indifference to national commitment and back: the case of the Trentine POWS in Russia during the First World War
Simone A. Bellezza /
- Lost in transition? The Habsburg legacy, state- and nation-building, and the new fascist order in the Upper Adriatic
Marco Bresciani /
- National indifference and the transnational corporation: the paradigm of the Bat’a Company
Zachary Doleshal /
- Between nationalism and indifference: the gradual elimination of indifference in interwar Yugoslavia
Filip Erdeljac /
- Paths to Frenchness: national indifference and the return of Alsace to France, 1919-1939
Alison Carrol /
- Beyond politics: national indifference as everyday ethnicity
Gábor Egry /
- National indifference, statistics, and the constructivist paradigm: the case of the "Tutejsi" (‘the people from here’) in interwar Polish censuses
Morgane Labbé /
- Instrumental nationalism in Upper Silesia
Brendan Karch /
- ‘I have removed the boundaries of nations’: nation switching and the Roman Catholic Church during and after the Second World War
Jim Bjork /
- ‘Citizen of the Soviet Union – it sounds dignified’. Letter writing, nationalities policy, and identity in the post-Stalinist Soviet Union
Anna Whittington /
- Conclusion: national indifference and the history of nationalism in modern Europe
Jon Fox, Maarten Van Ginderachter and James M. Brophy
As with all ground-breaking research, the literature on national indifference has not only revolutionized how we understand nationalism, over time, it has also revealed a new set of challenges. This volume brings together experienced scholars with the next generation, in a collaborative effort to push the geographic, historical, and conceptual boundaries of national indifference 2.0.
The first critical intervention of this volume is geographical, by extending the analysis beyond the original setting of national indifference in East Central Europe. This collection incorporates a much wider array of cases from Belgium and France in the west, to the former Habsburg territories in Central and Southern Europe, and finally to Poland, Romania, Ukraine, and the former Soviet Union in the east. Second, the volume re-periodizes national indifference. It was not only a nineteenth-century phenomenon, reducible to a short-lived developmental stage of nationalism. Rather, it survived well into the twentieth century, even into the post–Second World War age of nationalism. The third intervention is conceptual. We expand and disaggregate the national indifference paradigm to develop a more flexible and variegated approach that can better account for regional and historical variation.
This collection contains the following chapters:
- Introduction. National indifference and the history of nationalism in modern Europe
Maarten Van Ginderachter and Jon Fox /
- Too much on their mind. Impediments and limitations of the national cultural project in nineteenth-century Belgium
Tom Verschaffel /
- From national indifference to national commitment and back: the case of the Trentine POWS in Russia during the First World War
Simone A. Bellezza /
- Lost in transition? The Habsburg legacy, state- and nation-building, and the new fascist order in the Upper Adriatic
Marco Bresciani /
- National indifference and the transnational corporation: the paradigm of the Bat’a Company
Zachary Doleshal /
- Between nationalism and indifference: the gradual elimination of indifference in interwar Yugoslavia
Filip Erdeljac /
- Paths to Frenchness: national indifference and the return of Alsace to France, 1919-1939
Alison Carrol /
- Beyond politics: national indifference as everyday ethnicity
Gábor Egry /
- National indifference, statistics, and the constructivist paradigm: the case of the "Tutejsi" (‘the people from here’) in interwar Polish censuses
Morgane Labbé /
- Instrumental nationalism in Upper Silesia
Brendan Karch /
- ‘I have removed the boundaries of nations’: nation switching and the Roman Catholic Church during and after the Second World War
Jim Bjork /
- ‘Citizen of the Soviet Union – it sounds dignified’. Letter writing, nationalities policy, and identity in the post-Stalinist Soviet Union
Anna Whittington /
- Conclusion: national indifference and the history of nationalism in modern Europe
Jon Fox, Maarten Van Ginderachter and James M. Brophy
Research Interests: European History, Modern History, Cultural History, Soviet History, Modern Italian History, and 15 moreRomanian History, Popular Culture, Polish History, Nationalism, Central European history, Eastern European history, Yugoslavia, Habsburg Studies, Political History, Czech & Slovak Studies, National Identity, Ethnicity, Belgian History, Ruthenian history, and Modern European History
This themed section of 'Nations and Nationalism' contains the following articles: Jon E. Fox and Maarten Van Ginderachter, Introduction: Everyday nationalism's evidence problem / Tim Edensor and Shanti Sumartojo, Geographies of everyday... more
This themed section of 'Nations and Nationalism' contains the following articles:
Jon E. Fox and Maarten Van Ginderachter, Introduction: Everyday nationalism's evidence problem /
Tim Edensor and Shanti Sumartojo, Geographies of everyday nationhood: experiencing multiculturalism in Melbourne /
Maarten Van Ginderachter, How to gauge banal nationalism and national indifference in the past: proletarian tweets in Belgium’s belle époque /
Michael Skey, ‘There are times when I feel like a bit of an alien’: Middling migrants and the national order of things /
Jonathan Hearn and Marco Antonsich, Theoretical and methodological considerations for the study of banal and everyday nationalism
Jon E. Fox and Maarten Van Ginderachter, Introduction: Everyday nationalism's evidence problem /
Tim Edensor and Shanti Sumartojo, Geographies of everyday nationhood: experiencing multiculturalism in Melbourne /
Maarten Van Ginderachter, How to gauge banal nationalism and national indifference in the past: proletarian tweets in Belgium’s belle époque /
Michael Skey, ‘There are times when I feel like a bit of an alien’: Middling migrants and the national order of things /
Jonathan Hearn and Marco Antonsich, Theoretical and methodological considerations for the study of banal and everyday nationalism
Research Interests: Popular Culture, Nationalism, History from Below, National Identity, Ethnic Identity, and 11 moreHistory of Everyday Life, Sociology of Everyday Life, Ethnicity, Nations and nationalism, History of Nationalism and Nation-Building, Everyday Life, Nationalist Discourses, Everyday Nationalism, Banal nationalism, Ethnicity and National Identity, and Research methdology
Nationalism was ubiquitous in nineteenth-century Europe. Yet, we know little about what the nation meant to ordinary people. In this book, both renowned historians and younger scholars try to answer this question. This book will appeal to... more
Nationalism was ubiquitous in nineteenth-century Europe. Yet, we know little about what the nation meant to ordinary people. In this book, both renowned historians and younger scholars try to answer this question. This book will appeal to specialists in the field but also offers helpful reading for any college and university course on nationalism.
Contains the following chapters:
General Introduction: Writing the Mass into a Mass Phenomenon
Beyen, Marnix and Maarten Van Ginderachter
Pages 3-22 /
What Does It Mean to Say that Nationalism Is ‘Popular’?
Breuilly, John
Pages 23-43 /
An Inconvenient Nation: Nation-Building and National Identity in Modern Spain. The Historiographical Debate
Molina, Fernando and Cabo-Villaverde Miguel
Pages 47-72 /
On the Uses and Abuses of Nationalism from Below: A Few Notes on Italy
Porciani, Ilaria
Pages 73-95 /
Differentiation or Indifference? Changing Perspectives on National Identification in the Austrian Half of the Habsburg Monarchy
Cole, Laurence
Pages 96-119 /
Nationhood from Below: Some Historiographic Notes on Great Britain, France and Germany in the Long Nineteenth Century
Van Ginderachter, Maarten
Pages 120-136 /
The Nation and Its Outsiders: The ‘Gypsy Question’ and Peasant Nationalism in Finland, c. 1863–1900
Tervonen, Miika
Pages 139-161 /
Which Political Nation? Soft Borders and Popular Nationhood in the Rhineland, 1800–1850
Brophy, James M.
Pages 162-189 /
Between or Without Nations? Multiple Identifications Among Belgian Migrants in Lille, Northern France, 1850–1900
Vanden Borre, Saartje and Verschaffel, Tom
Pages 193-213 /
‘From the Wound a Flower Grows’: A Re-Examination of French Patriotism in the Face of the Franco-Prussian War
Chanet, Jean-François
Pages 214-229 /
‘All the Butter in the Country Belongs to Us, Belgians’: Well-Being and Lower-Class National Identification in Belgium During the First World War
Vrints, Antoon
Pages 230-249 /
General Conclusion: Popular Nationhood — A Companion of European Modernities
Beyen, Marnix and Maarten Van Ginderachter
Pages 250-260
Contains the following chapters:
General Introduction: Writing the Mass into a Mass Phenomenon
Beyen, Marnix and Maarten Van Ginderachter
Pages 3-22 /
What Does It Mean to Say that Nationalism Is ‘Popular’?
Breuilly, John
Pages 23-43 /
An Inconvenient Nation: Nation-Building and National Identity in Modern Spain. The Historiographical Debate
Molina, Fernando and Cabo-Villaverde Miguel
Pages 47-72 /
On the Uses and Abuses of Nationalism from Below: A Few Notes on Italy
Porciani, Ilaria
Pages 73-95 /
Differentiation or Indifference? Changing Perspectives on National Identification in the Austrian Half of the Habsburg Monarchy
Cole, Laurence
Pages 96-119 /
Nationhood from Below: Some Historiographic Notes on Great Britain, France and Germany in the Long Nineteenth Century
Van Ginderachter, Maarten
Pages 120-136 /
The Nation and Its Outsiders: The ‘Gypsy Question’ and Peasant Nationalism in Finland, c. 1863–1900
Tervonen, Miika
Pages 139-161 /
Which Political Nation? Soft Borders and Popular Nationhood in the Rhineland, 1800–1850
Brophy, James M.
Pages 162-189 /
Between or Without Nations? Multiple Identifications Among Belgian Migrants in Lille, Northern France, 1850–1900
Vanden Borre, Saartje and Verschaffel, Tom
Pages 193-213 /
‘From the Wound a Flower Grows’: A Re-Examination of French Patriotism in the Face of the Franco-Prussian War
Chanet, Jean-François
Pages 214-229 /
‘All the Butter in the Country Belongs to Us, Belgians’: Well-Being and Lower-Class National Identification in Belgium During the First World War
Vrints, Antoon
Pages 230-249 /
General Conclusion: Popular Nationhood — A Companion of European Modernities
Beyen, Marnix and Maarten Van Ginderachter
Pages 250-260
Research Interests: European History, Modern History, Cultural History, French History, German History, and 15 moreBritish History, Nineteenth Century Studies, Popular Culture, Habsburg Studies, Spanish History, History from Below, Political History, National Identity, Microhistory, Representation of Others, Belgian History, Nations and nationalism, Central and Eastern Europe, Identity and Alterity, and Finnish History
Contains the following articles: • Rees Davies, Nations and National Identities in the Medieval World: An Apologia, pp. 567-579 • Joep Leerssen, Medieval heteronomy, modern nationalism: Language assertion between Liège and Maastricht,... more
Contains the following articles:
• Rees Davies, Nations and National Identities in the Medieval World: An Apologia, pp. 567-579
• Joep Leerssen, Medieval heteronomy, modern nationalism: Language assertion between Liège and Maastricht, 14th-20th century, pp. 581-593
• Michael Hechter, From Class to Culture, pp. 595-644
• Miroslav Hroch, Why did they win? Preconditions for successful national agitation, pp. 645-655
• Montserrat Guibernau, Nation Formation and National Identity, pp. 657-682
• Ulf Hedetoft, Different phases, different logics: nationalism and globality at two turns of century, pp. 683-719
• Rees Davies, Nations and National Identities in the Medieval World: An Apologia, pp. 567-579
• Joep Leerssen, Medieval heteronomy, modern nationalism: Language assertion between Liège and Maastricht, 14th-20th century, pp. 581-593
• Michael Hechter, From Class to Culture, pp. 595-644
• Miroslav Hroch, Why did they win? Preconditions for successful national agitation, pp. 645-655
• Montserrat Guibernau, Nation Formation and National Identity, pp. 657-682
• Ulf Hedetoft, Different phases, different logics: nationalism and globality at two turns of century, pp. 683-719
Research Interests:
During the long nineteenth century, the Herderian motto that language reflect the soul of the nation proved to be a pivotal agent in forming ethnies, nations and national territories as well as in excluding linguistic minorities. This... more
During the long nineteenth century, the Herderian motto that language reflect the soul of the nation proved to be a pivotal agent in forming ethnies, nations and national territories as well as in excluding linguistic minorities. This volume opens with introductory and theoretical surveys on the theme of nationalism, followed by critical surveys of the situation in the Netherlands, Flanders and the Scandinavian Countries.
Research Interests:
Tien alternatieve, maar plausibele scenario’s over hoe de geschiedenis van België anders had kunnen lopen Een team van academische historici is op zoek gegaan naar de historische wortels van enkele van de meest prangende kwesties waar... more
Tien alternatieve, maar plausibele scenario’s over hoe de geschiedenis van België anders had kunnen lopen
Een team van academische historici is op zoek gegaan naar de historische wortels van enkele van de meest prangende kwesties waar België vandaag mee worstelt. Had België evengoed niet kunnen bestaan? Waarom is België het ‘lelijkste land ter wereld’? Kon Vlaanderen niet anders dan rechts en katholiek zijn? Had Kongo kunnen ontsnappen aan een genadeloze koloniale exploitatie? Hoe hebben de twee wereldoorlogen het uitzicht van België bepaald? Is Antwerpen werkelijk de navel van België? Wat heeft de monarchie België bijgebracht? Hoe zijn de communautaire geschillen zo intens geworden? Om deze vragen nieuw leven in te blazen, benadert dit boek ze vanuit een onverwachte hoek: Wat als?
Het land dat nooit was is een primeur: voor het eerst verschijnt er over België een counterfactual of tegenfeitelijke geschiedenis die even lezenswaardig als wetenschappelijk verantwoord is.
Een team van academische historici is op zoek gegaan naar de historische wortels van enkele van de meest prangende kwesties waar België vandaag mee worstelt. Had België evengoed niet kunnen bestaan? Waarom is België het ‘lelijkste land ter wereld’? Kon Vlaanderen niet anders dan rechts en katholiek zijn? Had Kongo kunnen ontsnappen aan een genadeloze koloniale exploitatie? Hoe hebben de twee wereldoorlogen het uitzicht van België bepaald? Is Antwerpen werkelijk de navel van België? Wat heeft de monarchie België bijgebracht? Hoe zijn de communautaire geschillen zo intens geworden? Om deze vragen nieuw leven in te blazen, benadert dit boek ze vanuit een onverwachte hoek: Wat als?
Het land dat nooit was is een primeur: voor het eerst verschijnt er over België een counterfactual of tegenfeitelijke geschiedenis die even lezenswaardig als wetenschappelijk verantwoord is.
Research Interests:
De communautaire spanningen binnen de Belgische Werkliedenpartij liepen voor de Eerste Wereldoorlog hoger op dan tot nu toe aangenomen werd. Niet alleen zorgde de taalkwestie voor onenigheid, maar Vlamingen en Franstaligen bleken zich te... more
De communautaire spanningen binnen de Belgische Werkliedenpartij liepen voor de Eerste Wereldoorlog hoger op dan tot nu toe aangenomen werd. Niet alleen zorgde de taalkwestie voor onenigheid, maar Vlamingen en Franstaligen bleken zich te identificeren met andere vaderlanden: de Franstaligen met België, de Vlamingen met Vlaanderen. De Vlaamse socialisten hadden tot de Eerste Wereldoorlog zelfs anti-Belgische trekken omdat zij de Belgische Omwenteling verwierpen als een ongelukkige broodopstand, die door de katholieken misbruikt was om zich van Nederland af te scheuren. De achterliggende gedachte was zelfs dat België een kunstmatige creatie was. Hun Franstalige kameraden eigenden zich 1830 nadrukkelijk toe als een nationale revolutie, die door de burgerij aan de arbeiders ontstolen was. Zij profileerden zich als ‘volbloed’ Belgen, met dien verstande dat verschillende Waalse socialisten al vanaf 1909 de wallingantische toer opgingen.
Kortom, de partijeenheid binnen de BWP is sterk overschat. Er is terecht op gewezen dat socialistische politici in de eerste plaats binnen het Belgische politieke kader dachten. Maar daar de conclusie aan verbinden dat ze allen aan hetzelfde vaderland verknocht waren, is fout. Deze onderschatting van de communautaire verschillen binnen de partij is ten eerste te wijten aan het selectieve geheugenverlies van de meeste socialistische voormannen na de Eerste Wereldoorlog. De zware aanvaringen tussen Vlamingen en Walen pasten niet in het succesverhaal dat de partij na 1918 schreef. Ten tweede heeft de Vlaamse beweging in de loop van de 20ste eeuw een monopolie verworven op het keurmerk van het 'Goede Vlamingschap'. Door zichzelf op te werpen als de voorhoede van de hele natie, is de Vlaamse beweging erin geslaagd haar tegenstanders af te schilderen niet alleen als vijanden van de flaminganten, maar van heel Vlaanderen. De uitvallen van de Vlaamse socialisten naar de Vlaamse beweging zijn dan ook vaak geïnterpreteerd als zovele bewijzen voor hun 'anti-Vlaamse' houding. Uit dit boek blijkt echter dat hun anti-flamingantisme vóór 1914 niet tot een afwijzing van Vlaanderen leidde, noch tot een toenadering tot het Belgische vaderland. Daarvoor waren er te veel tegenstrijdige factoren in het spel, waarvan de belangrijkste factor vanaf de eeuwwisseling de zware communautaire crisis in de partij was. De Gentse socialisten voelden de verwijten van hun Waalse kameraden aan het duistere Vlaanderen immers aan als een onterechte kritiek op hun propaganda-arbeid. Een kritiek die des te harder aankwam omdat hun voorhoederol in 'Arm Vlaanderen' een van de centrale mythen van hun zelfbeeld was.
Kortom, de partijeenheid binnen de BWP is sterk overschat. Er is terecht op gewezen dat socialistische politici in de eerste plaats binnen het Belgische politieke kader dachten. Maar daar de conclusie aan verbinden dat ze allen aan hetzelfde vaderland verknocht waren, is fout. Deze onderschatting van de communautaire verschillen binnen de partij is ten eerste te wijten aan het selectieve geheugenverlies van de meeste socialistische voormannen na de Eerste Wereldoorlog. De zware aanvaringen tussen Vlamingen en Walen pasten niet in het succesverhaal dat de partij na 1918 schreef. Ten tweede heeft de Vlaamse beweging in de loop van de 20ste eeuw een monopolie verworven op het keurmerk van het 'Goede Vlamingschap'. Door zichzelf op te werpen als de voorhoede van de hele natie, is de Vlaamse beweging erin geslaagd haar tegenstanders af te schilderen niet alleen als vijanden van de flaminganten, maar van heel Vlaanderen. De uitvallen van de Vlaamse socialisten naar de Vlaamse beweging zijn dan ook vaak geïnterpreteerd als zovele bewijzen voor hun 'anti-Vlaamse' houding. Uit dit boek blijkt echter dat hun anti-flamingantisme vóór 1914 niet tot een afwijzing van Vlaanderen leidde, noch tot een toenadering tot het Belgische vaderland. Daarvoor waren er te veel tegenstrijdige factoren in het spel, waarvan de belangrijkste factor vanaf de eeuwwisseling de zware communautaire crisis in de partij was. De Gentse socialisten voelden de verwijten van hun Waalse kameraden aan het duistere Vlaanderen immers aan als een onterechte kritiek op hun propaganda-arbeid. Een kritiek die des te harder aankwam omdat hun voorhoederol in 'Arm Vlaanderen' een van de centrale mythen van hun zelfbeeld was.
Research Interests: Political Parties, Nationalism, National Identity, Cooperatives, Socialism, and 15 moreRepresentation of Others, Ethnicity, Belgian History, Social Democracy, Trade unions, Belle Epoque, Identity and Alterity, Labor History, Brussels, Flanders, Mutual aid societies, Marxism and the national question, Wallonia, Ethnicity and National Identity, and Ghent
Le projet communautaire, élaboré aujourd’hui, par le Mouvement wallon et les autorités wallonnes tourne autour des notions de liberté, de démocratie, de citoyenneté et d’anti-nationalisme. Cet idéal de société, purement citoyen, ne révèle... more
Le projet communautaire, élaboré aujourd’hui, par le Mouvement wallon et les autorités wallonnes tourne autour des notions de liberté, de démocratie, de citoyenneté et d’anti-nationalisme. Cet idéal de société, purement citoyen, ne révèle pas toute l’histoire. En premier lieu, des notions telles l’hospitalité, bien que déjà présentes avant la Seconde Guerre Mondiale, ne pénètrent vraiment le fondement de l’image de soi wallonne qu’après 1960. À ce moment-là, le Mouvement wallon se met à craindre que le déclin démographique dans le sud du pays ne serve d’éteignoir à l’économie et que la Wallonie ne soit à la merci de la Flandre numériquement supérieure. Quelques rapports retentissants font comprendre que, seule, une politique active de natalité et d’immigration est à même de combattre le ‘dépeuplement’ de la Wallonie. En second lieu, les wallingants définissent leur ‘peuple’, non seulement, par des critères citoyens. Ils reprennent aussi, involontairement (quand ils ne réfléchissent pas consciemment au concept de nation), des principes ethniques, comme la terre natale wallonne, la langue, le sang et la race, la filiation ou le sort historique commun.
Le mouvement wallon a donc pris fait et cause pour les droits de la nation wallonne, mais peut-on le qualifier de nationaliste ? Cela pose un problème, si nous nous référons à la définition classique du nationalisme: il se comprend, alors, comme la tendance à l’adéquation entre nation et État. Il est vrai que les wallingants qui luttent pour un État indépendant ou pour le rattachement à la France ont toujours été minoritaires. La majorité du MW s’est plutôt concentrée sur l’acquisition de pouvoir à l’intérieur de l’État belge, par l’intermédiaire des institutions fédérales qui doivent lui garantir l’autonomie nécessaire. Cependant, la définition classique du nationalisme est réductrice. Elle néglige, en effet, la correspondance réelle qui existe entre la manière dont la nation est construite, soit par des États-Nations établis, soit par des mouvements nationalistes qui exigent un État propre, ou par des mouvements nationaux qui ne l’exigent pas. Faire la distinction entre ces trois éléments, pour autant qu’ils usent des mêmes mécanismes, a peu de sens. De ce qui précède, nous pouvons déduire que la construction de la nation wallonne est identique à celle d’autres mouvements nationalistes en Europe, en ce compris le mouvement flamand. Malgré les concordances, le mouvement wallon refuse l’étiquette nationaliste parce qu’elle s’oppose au nationalisme ‘ethnique’, ‘étroit’ du mouvement flamand. En situant, simultanément, le nationalisme à l’extérieur de sa communauté, mais en faisant, malgré tout, usage de la rhétorique et des rituels propres aux mouvements nationalistes, le mouvement wallon se classe dans la catégorie du ‘nationalisme banal’.
Bref, il n’y a pas de différence fondamentale qui puisse se réduire à des opinions complètement contradictoires sur la communauté entre le Mouvement flamand et le Mouvement wallon. Chaque construction de nation se fonde sur des éléments citoyens volontaristes et sur des données ethniques et culturelles; l’existence d’une cloison étanche entre les deux est inadmissible.
Le mouvement wallon a donc pris fait et cause pour les droits de la nation wallonne, mais peut-on le qualifier de nationaliste ? Cela pose un problème, si nous nous référons à la définition classique du nationalisme: il se comprend, alors, comme la tendance à l’adéquation entre nation et État. Il est vrai que les wallingants qui luttent pour un État indépendant ou pour le rattachement à la France ont toujours été minoritaires. La majorité du MW s’est plutôt concentrée sur l’acquisition de pouvoir à l’intérieur de l’État belge, par l’intermédiaire des institutions fédérales qui doivent lui garantir l’autonomie nécessaire. Cependant, la définition classique du nationalisme est réductrice. Elle néglige, en effet, la correspondance réelle qui existe entre la manière dont la nation est construite, soit par des États-Nations établis, soit par des mouvements nationalistes qui exigent un État propre, ou par des mouvements nationaux qui ne l’exigent pas. Faire la distinction entre ces trois éléments, pour autant qu’ils usent des mêmes mécanismes, a peu de sens. De ce qui précède, nous pouvons déduire que la construction de la nation wallonne est identique à celle d’autres mouvements nationalistes en Europe, en ce compris le mouvement flamand. Malgré les concordances, le mouvement wallon refuse l’étiquette nationaliste parce qu’elle s’oppose au nationalisme ‘ethnique’, ‘étroit’ du mouvement flamand. En situant, simultanément, le nationalisme à l’extérieur de sa communauté, mais en faisant, malgré tout, usage de la rhétorique et des rituels propres aux mouvements nationalistes, le mouvement wallon se classe dans la catégorie du ‘nationalisme banal’.
Bref, il n’y a pas de différence fondamentale qui puisse se réduire à des opinions complètement contradictoires sur la communauté entre le Mouvement flamand et le Mouvement wallon. Chaque construction de nation se fonde sur des éléments citoyens volontaristes et sur des données ethniques et culturelles; l’existence d’une cloison étanche entre les deux est inadmissible.
Research Interests: Nationalism, Ethnic Identity, Representation of Others, Ethnicity, Belgian History, and 14 moreNations and nationalism, Civic Identity, Regional identity, Ethnicité, Identity and Alterity, Banal nationalism, Ethnicity and National Identity, Nations, Nationalisme, Nationalisme, History of the Walloon Movement, Histoire de la Belgique, Ethnic and Civic Nationalism, Wallonie, and Nationalisme civique
This volume has tried to relate the history of emotions to the analysis of nationalism 'from below'. The different chapters offer a kaleidoscopic image of case studies and highlight how the boundaries between the emotional ascription to a... more
This volume has tried to relate the history of emotions to the analysis of nationalism 'from below'. The different chapters offer a kaleidoscopic image of case studies and highlight how the boundaries between the emotional ascription to a nation and to other spheres of territorial, social and gender identity are often blurred. They also display the great variety, malleability and instability of sentiments of allegiance and the attendant ambiguities and contradictions. Despite the chronological evolution of nationalized emotions and their change over time, this volume makes clear that the transitions between the early modern and the modern 'emotional regimes' are not always clear-cut. The different contributions decisively contribute to illustrate the many ways in which, on the one hand, nationalism and national identity are translated into emotions, and, on the other hand, emotions can be used to reinforce national belonging.
Research Interests: Modern History, French History, Modern Italian History, Romanian History, Polish History, and 14 moreHistory Of Emotions, Nationalism, Spanish History, Regionalism, Belgian History, Autobiographical Self-Representation, Nations and nationalism, Autobiographical Memory, Emotions, Dutch History, Finnish History, Occitan Language, Ego documents, and Personal Narratives
Abstract This volume tackles one of the basic questions in nationalism studies as formulated by Katherine Verdery: How do people become national? To examine how the nation entered ordinary people’s ‘insides’, this book focuses on their... more
Abstract
This volume tackles one of the basic questions in nationalism studies as formulated by Katherine Verdery: How do people become national? To examine how the nation entered ordinary people’s ‘insides’, this book focuses on their affective lives. As such its objective is to bridge a double gap: the neglect of both emotions and the everyday realm in historical research on nationalism. On the one hand, Benedict Anderson’s question ‘why [do nations] command such profound emotional legitimacy’ , has long befuddled historians, who have been late-comers to the so-called 'affective turn'. On the other hand, historians have been taken to task for obsessing over the bells and whistles of nationalism and over-concentrating on the most articulate social groups. This collection of essays takes up the gauntlet. By analysing how nationalism harnesses, produces and feeds on emotions to pull ordinary people into its orbit, it refutes Anthony D. Smith’s critique that everyday nationalism research is necessarily imbued with an ‘ahistorical blocking presentism’. Using a variety of sources, methods and cases, ranging from Spain and the Netherlands during the age of Revolutions, nineteenth-century France and Belgium over interwar Italy, Germany and Romania, to war-torn Finland, and post-WWII Poland, this volume demonstrates that emotions are integral to understanding the everyday pull of nationalism on ordinary people.
This volume tackles one of the basic questions in nationalism studies as formulated by Katherine Verdery: How do people become national? To examine how the nation entered ordinary people’s ‘insides’, this book focuses on their affective lives. As such its objective is to bridge a double gap: the neglect of both emotions and the everyday realm in historical research on nationalism. On the one hand, Benedict Anderson’s question ‘why [do nations] command such profound emotional legitimacy’ , has long befuddled historians, who have been late-comers to the so-called 'affective turn'. On the other hand, historians have been taken to task for obsessing over the bells and whistles of nationalism and over-concentrating on the most articulate social groups. This collection of essays takes up the gauntlet. By analysing how nationalism harnesses, produces and feeds on emotions to pull ordinary people into its orbit, it refutes Anthony D. Smith’s critique that everyday nationalism research is necessarily imbued with an ‘ahistorical blocking presentism’. Using a variety of sources, methods and cases, ranging from Spain and the Netherlands during the age of Revolutions, nineteenth-century France and Belgium over interwar Italy, Germany and Romania, to war-torn Finland, and post-WWII Poland, this volume demonstrates that emotions are integral to understanding the everyday pull of nationalism on ordinary people.
Research Interests: Modern History, French History, Modern Italian History, Romanian History, Polish History, and 14 moreHistory Of Emotions, Nationalism, Spanish History, Regionalism, Belgian History, Autobiographical Self-Representation, Nations and nationalism, Autobiographical Memory, Emotions, Dutch History, Finnish History, Occitan Language, Ego documents, and Personal Narratives
National indifference is one of the most innovative notions historians have brought to the study of nationalism in recent years. The concept questions the mass character of nationalism in East Central Europe at the turn of the nineteenth... more
National indifference is one of the most innovative notions historians have brought to the study of nationalism in recent years. The concept questions the mass character of nationalism in East Central Europe at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth century. Ordinary people were not in thrall to the nation; they were often indifferent, ambivalent or opportunistic when dealing with issues of nationhood.
As with all ground-breaking research, the literature on national indifference has not only revolutionized how we understand nationalism, over time, it has also revealed a new set of challenges. This volume brings together experienced scholars with the next generation, in a collaborative effort to push the geographic, historical, and conceptual boundaries of national indifference 2.0.
The first critical intervention of this volume is geographical, by extending the analysis beyond the original setting of national indifference in East Central Europe. This collection incorporates a much wider array of cases from Belgium and France in the west, to the former Habsburg territories in Central and Southern Europe, and finally to Poland, Romania, Ukraine, and the former Soviet Union in the east. Second, the volume re-periodizes national indifference. It was not only a nineteenth-century phenomenon, reducible to a short-lived developmental stage of nationalism. Rather, it survived well into the twentieth century, even into the post–Second World War age of nationalism. The third intervention is conceptual. We expand and disaggregate the national indifference paradigm to develop a more flexible and variegated approach that can better account for regional and historical variation.
As with all ground-breaking research, the literature on national indifference has not only revolutionized how we understand nationalism, over time, it has also revealed a new set of challenges. This volume brings together experienced scholars with the next generation, in a collaborative effort to push the geographic, historical, and conceptual boundaries of national indifference 2.0.
The first critical intervention of this volume is geographical, by extending the analysis beyond the original setting of national indifference in East Central Europe. This collection incorporates a much wider array of cases from Belgium and France in the west, to the former Habsburg territories in Central and Southern Europe, and finally to Poland, Romania, Ukraine, and the former Soviet Union in the east. Second, the volume re-periodizes national indifference. It was not only a nineteenth-century phenomenon, reducible to a short-lived developmental stage of nationalism. Rather, it survived well into the twentieth century, even into the post–Second World War age of nationalism. The third intervention is conceptual. We expand and disaggregate the national indifference paradigm to develop a more flexible and variegated approach that can better account for regional and historical variation.
Research Interests: European History, Modern History, Cultural History, Soviet History, Modern Italian History, and 15 moreRomanian History, Popular Culture, Polish History, Nationalism, Central European history, Eastern European history, Yugoslavia, Habsburg Studies, Political History, Czech & Slovak Studies, National Identity, Russian History, Central European Studies, Ethnicity, and Belgian History
National indifference is one of the most innovative notions historians have brought to the study of nationalism in recent years. The concept questions the mass character of nationalism in East Central Europe at the turn of the nineteenth... more
National indifference is one of the most innovative notions historians have brought to the study of nationalism in recent years. The concept questions the mass character of nationalism in East Central Europe at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth century. Ordinary people were not in thrall to the nation; they were often indifferent, ambivalent or opportunistic when dealing with issues of nationhood.
As with all ground-breaking research, the literature on national indifference has not only revolutionized how we understand nationalism, over time, it has also revealed a new set of challenges. This volume brings together experienced scholars with the next generation, in a collaborative effort to push the geographic, historical, and conceptual boundaries of national indifference 2.0.
The first critical intervention of this volume is geographical, by extending the analysis beyond the original setting of national indifference in East Central Europe. This collection incorporates a much wider array of cases from Belgium and France in the west, to the former Habsburg territories in Central and Southern Europe, and finally to Poland, Romania, Ukraine, and the former Soviet Union in the east. Second, the volume re-periodizes national indifference. It was not only a nineteenth-century phenomenon, reducible to a short-lived developmental stage of nationalism. Rather, it survived well into the twentieth century, even into the post–Second World War age of nationalism. The third intervention is conceptual. We expand and disaggregate the national indifference paradigm to develop a more flexible and variegated approach that can better account for regional and historical variation.
As with all ground-breaking research, the literature on national indifference has not only revolutionized how we understand nationalism, over time, it has also revealed a new set of challenges. This volume brings together experienced scholars with the next generation, in a collaborative effort to push the geographic, historical, and conceptual boundaries of national indifference 2.0.
The first critical intervention of this volume is geographical, by extending the analysis beyond the original setting of national indifference in East Central Europe. This collection incorporates a much wider array of cases from Belgium and France in the west, to the former Habsburg territories in Central and Southern Europe, and finally to Poland, Romania, Ukraine, and the former Soviet Union in the east. Second, the volume re-periodizes national indifference. It was not only a nineteenth-century phenomenon, reducible to a short-lived developmental stage of nationalism. Rather, it survived well into the twentieth century, even into the post–Second World War age of nationalism. The third intervention is conceptual. We expand and disaggregate the national indifference paradigm to develop a more flexible and variegated approach that can better account for regional and historical variation.
Research Interests: European History, Modern History, Cultural History, Soviet History, Modern Italian History, and 15 moreRomanian History, Popular Culture, Polish History, Nationalism, Central European history, Eastern European history, Yugoslavia, Habsburg Studies, Political History, Czech & Slovak Studies, National Identity, Ethnicity, Belgian History, Ruthenian history, and Modern European History
Michael Billig's theory of banal nationalism involves the assumption that the absence of an explicit discourse on the nation should be interpreted as the unmindful presence of nationalism and that the mass media faithfully represent or... more
Michael Billig's theory of banal nationalism involves the assumption that the absence of an explicit discourse on the nation should be interpreted as the unmindful presence of nationalism and that the mass media faithfully represent or reflect the discourses of ‘ordinary people’. Recent historical research of ‘national indifference’ in imperial Austria has inverted the correlation between the ubiquity of nationalist discourses and their impact in society. This article assesses these conflicting frameworks and refutes AD Smith's critique of everyday nationalism research as necessarily ahistorical and presentist. This case study of the rank‐and‐file of the social‐democratic Belgian Workers' Party at the close of the nineteenth century uses a unique source of working‐class voices: the so‐called ‘propaganda pence’ or ‘proletarian tweets’ from the Flemish‐speaking city of Ghent. Hot, explicit nationalism was absent from these sources, which begs the question: is this proof of banal nationalism or national indifference? A historically contextualized analysis of the absences shows that workers expressed national indifference towards Belgian, but not towards Flemish ethnicity. In Rogers Brubaker's terms: Flemish ethnicity was a relevant social category, but only in a very restricted number of social contexts could it become a basis for ‘groupness’ or political mobilisation in daily life.
Research Interests: European History, Modern History, Cultural History, Working Classes, Popular Culture, and 15 moreNationalism, Habsburg Studies, Political History, Language and Identity, Social History, History of Everyday Life, Labor History and Studies, Ethnicity, Belgian History, Everyday Life, Social Democracy, Invented Traditions, Central and Eastern Europe, Working Class Studies, and Working-Class History
The purpose of this collection of articles is to begin to address everyday nationalism’s evidence problem. If banal nationalism is consumed ‘mindlessly, rather than mindfully’ (Billig, 1995: 38) by ordinary people in everyday contexts,... more
The purpose of this collection of articles is to begin to address everyday nationalism’s evidence problem. If banal nationalism is consumed ‘mindlessly, rather than mindfully’ (Billig, 1995: 38) by ordinary people in everyday contexts, how do we even know this? Indeed, how can we know that the sites and routines of banal nationalism are unseen, unheard, unnoticed? The articles in this themed section try to tackle this problem with methodologically innovative approaches for uncovering the covert workings of nationhood in everyday life. Our aim is not to challenge, but to test, the theoretical premises of banal nationalism. We are interested in how we can generate evidence of the nation operating clandestinely as an unreflexive habit, an unselfconscious disposition, and an embodied practice amongst ordinary people in their everyday lives. Drawing on insights from diverse traditions and perspectives, the contributors to this themed section offer novel methodological and theoretical approaches for uncovering evidence of nationhood beneath the veneer of everyday life.
This themed section of 'Nations and Nationalism' contains the following articles besides the introduction:
Tim Edensor and Shanti Sumartojo, Geographies of everyday nationhood: experiencing multiculturalism in Melbourne /
Maarten Van Ginderachter, How to gauge banal nationalism and national indifference in the past: proletarian tweets in Belgium’s belle époque /
Michael Skey, ‘There are times when I feel like a bit of an alien’: Middling migrants and the national order of things /
Jonathan Hearn and Marco Antonsich, Theoretical and methodological considerations for the study of banal and everyday nationalism
This themed section of 'Nations and Nationalism' contains the following articles besides the introduction:
Tim Edensor and Shanti Sumartojo, Geographies of everyday nationhood: experiencing multiculturalism in Melbourne /
Maarten Van Ginderachter, How to gauge banal nationalism and national indifference in the past: proletarian tweets in Belgium’s belle époque /
Michael Skey, ‘There are times when I feel like a bit of an alien’: Middling migrants and the national order of things /
Jonathan Hearn and Marco Antonsich, Theoretical and methodological considerations for the study of banal and everyday nationalism
Research Interests:
This chapter argues for the study of the appropriation of lieux de mémoire, national symbols, myths and rituals by 'common people'. Since the 1980s, the national discourses, symbols and lieux de mémoire of the most diverse nations and... more
This chapter argues for the study of the appropriation of lieux de mémoire, national symbols, myths and rituals by 'common people'. Since the 1980s, the national discourses, symbols and lieux de mémoire of the most diverse nations and nationalist movements, have been amply studied. Much of this research is informed by a narrow interpretation of the constructivist paradigm, overstating the importance of top-down processes and indoctrination. The idea that national identity is an elitist invention forced onto the masses through a whole range of nationalising media has led many scholars to extrapolate the national(ist) discourse of elites and states to the masses they addressed. However, we cannot accept unquestioningly that these generalisations hold true. We need to study not only the production of national discourse, but also its consumption in society and its popular appropriation. Lieux de mémoire should equally be studied from below, for instance using socalled écritures ordinaires. This of course should involve close attention to the social environment in which these writings and their attendant identities are anchored, or to put it differently to the milieux de mémoire.
After commenting on the absence of a from below perspective in the research on lieux de mémoire and in Pierre Nora’s work itself, this contribution tackles the lack of research studying nationhood from below, more in general. Finally, it suggests some paths to study lieux de mémoire from below.
After commenting on the absence of a from below perspective in the research on lieux de mémoire and in Pierre Nora’s work itself, this contribution tackles the lack of research studying nationhood from below, more in general. Finally, it suggests some paths to study lieux de mémoire from below.
Research Interests: Cultural History, Popular Culture, Constructivism, Nationalism, History from Below, and 10 morePolitical History, History of Reading and Writing, National Identity, Lieux de memoire, Microhistory, Appropriation, Discourse Studies, Political symbols, Everyday Nationalism, and Nationalist Signs and Symbols
This chapter from the volume 'To kill a sultan : a transnational history of the attempt on Abdülhamid II (1905)' describes the ‘world according to Edward Joris’. This Flemish anarchist with modest roots and low self-esteem migrated to... more
This chapter from the volume 'To kill a sultan : a transnational history of the attempt on Abdülhamid II (1905)' describes the ‘world according to Edward Joris’. This Flemish anarchist with modest roots and low self-esteem migrated to Istanbul in search of work and adventure. He became engaged in the Armenian Question and eventually in a terrorist plot against sultan Abdülhamid II. Although he was sentenced to death, he was released after two years of prison. This petite biographie addresses two central contradictions of Joris’s character: How does a flamingant socialist turn terrorist? And how does an internationalist deal with nationalism? The role and importance of transcultural personal encounters and experiences, as well as individual character traits, come to the fore in this chapter.
Research Interests: Ottoman History, Terrorism, Armenian Studies, Anarchism, Transnational History, and 12 moreBiography, Language and Identity, Armenian History, Modern Armenian History, Representation of Others, Belgian History, Social Democracy, History of Istanbul, Abdulhamid II, Biography and Life-Writing, Identity and Alterity, and Ottoman Armenians
Bu kitap Times tarafından ‘modern zamanların en büyük ve sansasyonel siyasi komplolarından biri’ olarak tarif edilen olayı ele alıyor. 21 Temmuz 1905 tarihinde, İstanbul’da bulunan Yıldız Hamidiye Camisi’ndeki Cuma duasından sonra... more
Bu kitap Times tarafından ‘modern zamanların en büyük ve sansasyonel siyasi komplolarından biri’ olarak tarif edilen olayı ele alıyor. 21 Temmuz 1905 tarihinde, İstanbul’da bulunan Yıldız Hamidiye Camisi’ndeki Cuma duasından sonra patlayan bombalı bir araç 26 kişinin ölümüne ve 58 kişinin de yaralanmasına yol açtı. Saldırının hedefi olan Sultan II. Abdülhamid olayı yara almadan atlattı. Osmanlı polisi kısa sürede olaydan Ermeni devrimcilerin sorumlu olduğunu buldular, pek çok insan tutuklandı ve yargılandı ve bunların arasında Belçikalı anarşist Edward Joris de vardı. Onun hapse atılması uluslararası bir tepkiye yol açtı ve sonuç olarak diplomatik bir karışıklık yarattı.
Suikast girişimi başarısız oldu, olaylar hafızalardan silindi ve bu olay yirminci yüzyıl tarihinin başlarına dair bir dipnot olarak kaldı. Bu kitap komployu Osmanlı’nın son döneminin tarihine dair ulusal sınırları aşan bir an olarak ele alıyor ve uluslararası hukuk, terörizm, Oryantalizm, diplomasi, anarşizm, emperyalizm, milliyetçilik, kitle iletişim araçları ve hayırseverlik gibi modern tarihe dair konulara bir pencere açıyor. Yirminci yüzyılın başlarındaki Osmanlı İmparatorluğu ile Avrupa ve dünyanın geri kalanı arasındaki uluslararası bağlara dair orijinal bir bakış sunuyor.
Suikast girişimi başarısız oldu, olaylar hafızalardan silindi ve bu olay yirminci yüzyıl tarihinin başlarına dair bir dipnot olarak kaldı. Bu kitap komployu Osmanlı’nın son döneminin tarihine dair ulusal sınırları aşan bir an olarak ele alıyor ve uluslararası hukuk, terörizm, Oryantalizm, diplomasi, anarşizm, emperyalizm, milliyetçilik, kitle iletişim araçları ve hayırseverlik gibi modern tarihe dair konulara bir pencere açıyor. Yirminci yüzyılın başlarındaki Osmanlı İmparatorluğu ile Avrupa ve dünyanın geri kalanı arasındaki uluslararası bağlara dair orijinal bir bakış sunuyor.
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The present article is an introduction to Belgium's so-called 'nationalities problem' for a broader English-speaking audience. It discusses the role of memory and recent globalization processes in the growing apart of Belgium. The article... more
The present article is an introduction to Belgium's so-called 'nationalities problem' for a broader English-speaking audience. It discusses the role of memory and recent globalization processes in the growing apart of Belgium. The article concludes that diverging memories are both a symptom and a cause of the drifting apart of communities in Belgium, but they are not the result of the challenges globalisation supposedly poses to national identities.
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By the end of the 1990s, it seemed that virtually everything had been said about the history of nations and nationalism. When the dust settled from the fierce disputes between modernists and primordialists an interpretive consensus... more
By the end of the 1990s, it seemed that virtually everything had been said about the history of nations and nationalism. When the dust settled from the fierce disputes between modernists and primordialists an interpretive consensus seemed to emerge. On the one hand, scholars no longer contested the fundamentally constructed character of nations, yet, on the other, they acknowledged certain limits of such constructivist views. Accordingly, nineteenth-century states and nationalist movements did not invent nations at will and worked with proto-national and ethnic identities. Further, nations had histories; indeed, they underwent processes of construction earlier and in a more complex way than die-hard modernists had previously maintained. In a similar vein, the classic dichotomy between ethnic and civic varieties of nationalism turned out to be less clear-cut than formerly posited.
With core conceptual debates laid to rest or mimicking older polemics, nationalism research seemed to have lost its drive. Social scientists had done their work of conceptualizing nationalism, and historians – or so some believed - could confine themselves to describing nationalisms' concrete manifestations. Yet one crucial question had hardly even been seriously asked: what did the nation mean to ordinary people?
In the volume 'Nationhood from below', both renowned historians and younger scholars try to answer this question. The chapters relate to a host of present-day countries in Western, Southern, Northern and Central Europe: Austria, Belgium, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Poland, Slovenia and Spain. The contributions fall into three main clusters: an introductory section, a number of historiographical survey chapters and a part with case studies.
With core conceptual debates laid to rest or mimicking older polemics, nationalism research seemed to have lost its drive. Social scientists had done their work of conceptualizing nationalism, and historians – or so some believed - could confine themselves to describing nationalisms' concrete manifestations. Yet one crucial question had hardly even been seriously asked: what did the nation mean to ordinary people?
In the volume 'Nationhood from below', both renowned historians and younger scholars try to answer this question. The chapters relate to a host of present-day countries in Western, Southern, Northern and Central Europe: Austria, Belgium, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Poland, Slovenia and Spain. The contributions fall into three main clusters: an introductory section, a number of historiographical survey chapters and a part with case studies.
Research Interests: European History, Cultural History, French History, Popular Culture, Constructivism, and 15 moreNationalism, Habsburg Studies, History from Below, Political History, Croatian History, Czech & Slovak Studies, National Identity, Language and Identity, Ethnicity, Slovenian History, Imagined Community, Invented Traditions, Austrian History, Identity and Alterity, and Finnish History
The conclusion to the volume ‘Nationhood from below’ tackles a number of related (heuristic, methodological and interpretative) insights. First of all, several chapters draw attention to the possibilities and limits that different types... more
The conclusion to the volume ‘Nationhood from below’ tackles a number of related (heuristic, methodological and interpretative) insights. First of all, several chapters draw attention to the possibilities and limits that different types of sources offer to get a grip on national identification processes among ordinary people. A second notable conclusion relates to the existence of national discourses at the lowest levels of society, sometimes prior to and/or independent of bourgeois nationalization attempts. In this respect the volume questions unilineal narratives of nation building. Thirdly, several case studies successfully combine micro- and macro-history by linking national identification patterns in the lower reaches of society to concrete contexts and structural variables or processes. Finally, a number of chapters qualify the hypothesis we formulated in our introduction – that, among lower classes, national identity presents itself first and foremost in opposition to the Other.
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This chapter identifies a three-stage chronology in the adoption of history from below to nationalism research in the historiographies of Great Britain, France and Germany. In the ‘classic’ era of modern nationalism research, from the... more
This chapter identifies a three-stage chronology in the adoption of history from below to nationalism research in the historiographies of Great Britain, France and Germany. In the ‘classic’ era of modern nationalism research, from the 1970s to the early 1990s, the dominant theoretical framework hinged on socialization, disciplining and indoctrination. A whole array of nationalizing media at the disposal of states and elites were thought to indoctrinate the masses to the extent that other loyalties (to region, city, class and so on) disappeared. Many studies overemphasized the production of national discourses in middle-class or elite sources, to the neglect of interpreting their popular reception and appropriation.
In the 1990s this rather monolithic and (uni)linear version of nation-building was questioned. Against the background of the Soviet implosion, ongoing European integration and globalization processes, and the growing impact of subaltern and postcolonial studies, attention turned towards conflict, resistance, unintended consequences of governmental strategies and multiple identifications. Scholars began to focus on the experience of the masses (often through micro-case studies at the local level). The fragmentation of national identity and its interlacing with other group loyalties such as class, gender, religious, regional and (most recently) transnational identities became major concerns. Finally, in the last ten years some scholars have turned towards autobiographical documents from ordinary people to study nationhood from below.
In the 1990s this rather monolithic and (uni)linear version of nation-building was questioned. Against the background of the Soviet implosion, ongoing European integration and globalization processes, and the growing impact of subaltern and postcolonial studies, attention turned towards conflict, resistance, unintended consequences of governmental strategies and multiple identifications. Scholars began to focus on the experience of the masses (often through micro-case studies at the local level). The fragmentation of national identity and its interlacing with other group loyalties such as class, gender, religious, regional and (most recently) transnational identities became major concerns. Finally, in the last ten years some scholars have turned towards autobiographical documents from ordinary people to study nationhood from below.
Research Interests: Cultural History, French History, German History, British History, Popular Culture, and 13 moreIdentity (Culture), Nationalism, History from Below, Political History, Nationalism And State Building, Regionalism, Microhistory, Social History, Autobiographical Self-Representation, Nations and nationalism, Subaltern Studies, Nationbuilding and Statebuilding, and Postcolonialism
Italian language article. The image of the Belgian Workers’ Party as a solid party unchallenged by ethnic tensions and united around a common Belgianness does not stand up to historical scrutiny. Using the key concepts of imagined... more
Italian language article.
The image of the Belgian Workers’ Party as a solid party unchallenged by ethnic tensions and united around a common Belgianness does not stand up to historical scrutiny. Using the key concepts of imagined communities, ethnies, mythomoteur, and oppositional patriotism, this article argues that despite its undeniable integration into the political, social and economic structures of the Belgian nation-state, the BWP was ethnically divided between Flemish and Walloon socialists in the period 1885–1914.
The image of the Belgian Workers’ Party as a solid party unchallenged by ethnic tensions and united around a common Belgianness does not stand up to historical scrutiny. Using the key concepts of imagined communities, ethnies, mythomoteur, and oppositional patriotism, this article argues that despite its undeniable integration into the political, social and economic structures of the Belgian nation-state, the BWP was ethnically divided between Flemish and Walloon socialists in the period 1885–1914.
Research Interests: Nationalism, National Identity, Language and Identity, Socialism, Representation of Others, and 10 moreEthnicity, Belgian History, Imagined Community, Social Democracy, Identity and Alterity, Imagined Communities, Benedict Anderson, Ethnicity and National Identity, Linguistic Identities, and Anthony D. Smith
Since the 1960s scholars pf pillarization (the formation of strong confessional and ideological communities or ‘pillars’ - also referred to as verzuiling, consocationalism or compartimentalization) have tried to find a way between two... more
Since the 1960s scholars pf pillarization (the formation of strong confessional and ideological communities or ‘pillars’ - also referred to as verzuiling, consocationalism or compartimentalization) have tried to find a way between two extremes: overemphasizing the peculiarity of the Belgian and Dutch case versus overgeneralizing the commonality of the European experience. Transnational history may offer a way out of this methodological bind. On the one hand it implies a shift away from the nation-state perspective and from explanations in terms of a national Sonderweg, while still taking the national framework into account (not as the default choice, but as one of a number of actors or spatial levels that interact). On the other hand, transnational history avoids the superficiality of broad, noncommittal similarities between different European cases because it focuses on contact and exchange between concrete historical actors. What is important from a transnational perspective are the cross-border relations between people and organizations and the possible transfer of ideas, norms and practices. Starting from the particular case of contacts between Belgian and Dutch socialists during the belle époque, this contribution suggests a number of future research avenues
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Scholars often situate the difference between regional(ist) and national(ist) movements in the latter's search for sovereignty and complete independence and in its more historicist, ethnocultural and territorialised nature. Using the... more
Scholars often situate the difference between regional(ist) and national(ist) movements in the latter's search for sovereignty and complete independence and in its more historicist, ethnocultural and territorialised nature. Using the Belgian case, this chapter argues that this distinction is hard to ascertain in practice because both types of movement may don each other's characteristics to various degrees. The only 'hard' distinguishing factor often turns out to be their 'self-description', whether they term themselves 'national(ist)' rather than 'regional(ist)' or vice versa. As both types of movements may or may not invoke separatism, the latter term does not necessarily clarify the conceptual vagueness.
Both the Flemish and Walloon movements developed out of Belgian nationalism, rather than being Ancien Régime remnants of some older regional configurations. The Flemish movement explicitly described itself as 'national' while its Walloon counterpart chose 'regional' to label itself. To an important extent the ‘wallingant’ desire to clearly distinguish itself from the ‘flamingants’ inspired this self-description.
In the Belgian case the Belle Époque is a significant turning point in the development of regional(ist) and/or national(ist) movements. The conflict between the Flemish and the Walloon movements came to the fore for the first time. Up to the 1880s the Walloon movement had been a folkloric and cultural concern linked to the Walloon dialects. Afterwards it became a francophone Belgian-nationalist protest movement against the ‘flamingant’ language demands. ‘Wallingants’ believed that the Flemish movement threatened the linguistic and symbolic unity of the Belgian nation. Up to the Second World War we therefore might describe Walloon regionalism as a form of 'residual' Belgian nationalism.
After the 1880s, the Walloon movement's cultural interest in folklore and dialects was channelled into a new direction. The themes and tropes of the older cultural movement were reappropriated and redefined. The Walloon dialects, for instance, were reinterpreted as proof of the perennial Latin nature of Wallonia. The distant past was gleaned to find evidence of the resistance of Walloons against Germanic intrusions. In the process the Walloon movement not only developed a highly historicist, ethnocultural and territorialised discourse, it also donned itself with the outer trappings of a national movement (a flag, emblem, motto and holiday). Sovereignty was not a popular demand of ‘wallingants’ before the First World War, but neither was it among ‘flamingants’. Scholars agree that neither seriously challenged the unity of the Belgian fatherland during the Belle Époque. What was also lacking to qualify the Flemish movement unhesitatingly as nationalist was an unequivocal link between the Flemish soil, language and people. Prior to 1914 many ‘flamingants’ still believed in the bilingual (Dutch-French) nature of Flanders and they did not question Belgium's right to existence.
This all points to the difficulty of disentangling regions/regionalism from nations/nationalism. Their extremes can be clearly distinguished from one other, but there is a considerable 'grey area' where both fuse. Regardless of whether we term the Flemish and Walloon movements nationalist or regionalist, the fact remains that in Belgium - as opposed to the situation in other European countries - only two opposing language groups of roughly the same size emerged, with all the inherent potential of total antagonism. In Germany, Spain and France, all regional movements were movements of a comparatively small demographic minority. Another difference in the Belgian case is the firm left-wing grounding of the Walloon movement (as opposed to, for instance, the more rightist French regionalisms). This was a direct result of the Belgian political landscape that put a conservative-voting Flanders in opposition to a more progressive-leaning Wallonia.
With all the previous qualifications, remarks and criticisms in mind, this chapter suggests a broad characterisation of regionalism in which its relationship to nationalism is stressed. Considering that both phenomena are clearly interrelated and climaxed during the Belle Époque, we might define regionalism as the work of dissatisfied local elites that were at the margins or left out of stronger national movements or dominant nation-building efforts. As the latter had already laid a solid claim to the epithet 'national', these 'regionalists' vied for influence by emphasizing their region while at the same time upholding the one and only fatherland.
Both the Flemish and Walloon movements developed out of Belgian nationalism, rather than being Ancien Régime remnants of some older regional configurations. The Flemish movement explicitly described itself as 'national' while its Walloon counterpart chose 'regional' to label itself. To an important extent the ‘wallingant’ desire to clearly distinguish itself from the ‘flamingants’ inspired this self-description.
In the Belgian case the Belle Époque is a significant turning point in the development of regional(ist) and/or national(ist) movements. The conflict between the Flemish and the Walloon movements came to the fore for the first time. Up to the 1880s the Walloon movement had been a folkloric and cultural concern linked to the Walloon dialects. Afterwards it became a francophone Belgian-nationalist protest movement against the ‘flamingant’ language demands. ‘Wallingants’ believed that the Flemish movement threatened the linguistic and symbolic unity of the Belgian nation. Up to the Second World War we therefore might describe Walloon regionalism as a form of 'residual' Belgian nationalism.
After the 1880s, the Walloon movement's cultural interest in folklore and dialects was channelled into a new direction. The themes and tropes of the older cultural movement were reappropriated and redefined. The Walloon dialects, for instance, were reinterpreted as proof of the perennial Latin nature of Wallonia. The distant past was gleaned to find evidence of the resistance of Walloons against Germanic intrusions. In the process the Walloon movement not only developed a highly historicist, ethnocultural and territorialised discourse, it also donned itself with the outer trappings of a national movement (a flag, emblem, motto and holiday). Sovereignty was not a popular demand of ‘wallingants’ before the First World War, but neither was it among ‘flamingants’. Scholars agree that neither seriously challenged the unity of the Belgian fatherland during the Belle Époque. What was also lacking to qualify the Flemish movement unhesitatingly as nationalist was an unequivocal link between the Flemish soil, language and people. Prior to 1914 many ‘flamingants’ still believed in the bilingual (Dutch-French) nature of Flanders and they did not question Belgium's right to existence.
This all points to the difficulty of disentangling regions/regionalism from nations/nationalism. Their extremes can be clearly distinguished from one other, but there is a considerable 'grey area' where both fuse. Regardless of whether we term the Flemish and Walloon movements nationalist or regionalist, the fact remains that in Belgium - as opposed to the situation in other European countries - only two opposing language groups of roughly the same size emerged, with all the inherent potential of total antagonism. In Germany, Spain and France, all regional movements were movements of a comparatively small demographic minority. Another difference in the Belgian case is the firm left-wing grounding of the Walloon movement (as opposed to, for instance, the more rightist French regionalisms). This was a direct result of the Belgian political landscape that put a conservative-voting Flanders in opposition to a more progressive-leaning Wallonia.
With all the previous qualifications, remarks and criticisms in mind, this chapter suggests a broad characterisation of regionalism in which its relationship to nationalism is stressed. Considering that both phenomena are clearly interrelated and climaxed during the Belle Époque, we might define regionalism as the work of dissatisfied local elites that were at the margins or left out of stronger national movements or dominant nation-building efforts. As the latter had already laid a solid claim to the epithet 'national', these 'regionalists' vied for influence by emphasizing their region while at the same time upholding the one and only fatherland.
Research Interests:
The Walloon Movement is the lesser-known counterpart to the Flemish Movement in Belgium. In contemporary political debate it presents itself, and is usually perceived, as a civic and voluntaristic movement predicated on the values of... more
The Walloon Movement is the lesser-known counterpart to the Flemish Movement in Belgium. In contemporary political debate it presents itself, and is usually perceived, as a civic and voluntaristic movement predicated on the values of democracy, freedom, openness and anti-nationalism. As such it is contrasted against its Flemish counterpart, which accordingly is characterized as tending towards an ethnic exclusivist form of nationalism hinging on descent, culture and language. The historical record behind these representations, however, shows that the Walloon Movement is rooted in ethnocultural as much as social politics, and that it has always contained both civic and ethnic elements, to varying degrees. This article highlights the Walloon Movement in order to analyse the language and national stereotypes in which national movements are characterized both in political rhetoric and in scholarly analysis. The case is particularly relevant for the problematic usage of the ‘civic-ethnic’ opposition slipping between the discourses of antagonism and analysis; one type of such slippage is here identified as ‘denied ethnicism’.
Research Interests: Nineteenth Century Studies, Nationalism, National Identity, Regionalism, Language and Identity, and 12 moreHistory of the Flemish Movement, Ethnicity, Belgian History, Territoriality, Flemish-nationalism, Regional identity, Regionalismo, Wallonia, History of the Walloon Movement, Ethnic and Civic Nationalism, Linguistic Identities, and East West Dichotomy
Until 2010 Belgian history had been rarely studied from a transnational perspective. In the 1990s and early 2000s Anglo-Saxon, French and, to a lesser degree, German literature and theoretical frames were put to use, but from about 2005... more
Until 2010 Belgian history had been rarely studied from a transnational perspective. In the 1990s and early 2000s Anglo-Saxon, French and, to a lesser degree, German literature and theoretical frames were put to use, but from about 2005 transnational perspectives that go beyond the nation(-state) paradigm have made some impact, most particularly in the study of ‘hybrid’, plural and multilingual Brussels. This particular area does indeed offer the most fully-fledged alternative to the national mode of writing history in Belgium.
In the long run regional historiography (be it at the Flemish or the Walloon level) has adopted the modes of its national equivalent. Moreover, when after the First World War Flemish nationalist historians began to present their region as a nation in its own right, they merely challenged the idea of Belgianness, not the national paradigm as such. In fact they appropriated a whole number of Belgian national myths to the Flemish narrative. The broader picture of global and world history was generally absent in Belgian 20th century historiography, despite Henri Pirenne's emphasis on transnational social-economic evolutions in medieval Europe. At the moment a new generation of transnational research is on its way (partly due to the introduction of world or global history to the Flemish universities' curriculum).
In the long run regional historiography (be it at the Flemish or the Walloon level) has adopted the modes of its national equivalent. Moreover, when after the First World War Flemish nationalist historians began to present their region as a nation in its own right, they merely challenged the idea of Belgianness, not the national paradigm as such. In fact they appropriated a whole number of Belgian national myths to the Flemish narrative. The broader picture of global and world history was generally absent in Belgian 20th century historiography, despite Henri Pirenne's emphasis on transnational social-economic evolutions in medieval Europe. At the moment a new generation of transnational research is on its way (partly due to the introduction of world or global history to the Flemish universities' curriculum).
Research Interests:
Being one of the historically most densely populated and most urbanised regions of Europe, nineteenth century Belgium was imagined as a markedly urban landscape. Politically this was translated in the notion of municipal autonomy, a key... more
Being one of the historically most densely populated and most urbanised regions of Europe, nineteenth century Belgium was imagined as a markedly urban landscape. Politically this was translated in the notion of municipal autonomy, a key principle of Belgian political life which counterbalanced the centralising tendencies of the newly founded state.
The central argument of this chapter is that municipal autonomy at once strengthened and weakened national unity. On the one hand, it functioned as a safety valve to relieve the pressure from ideological, socio-economic and ethnic quarrels that might threaten the unity of the nation. Liberal town authorities, for instance, could follow their own agenda under a hostile Catholic government and vice versa. The municipal level also played a crucial role in alleviating the tensions of democratization as a laboratory for electoral reform. On the other hand, in the long run municipal autonomy may have undermined the state's capacity to harness differences within the nation, by providing local interests an eminently patriotic excuse to escape the state's nationalising reach.
The central argument of this chapter is that municipal autonomy at once strengthened and weakened national unity. On the one hand, it functioned as a safety valve to relieve the pressure from ideological, socio-economic and ethnic quarrels that might threaten the unity of the nation. Liberal town authorities, for instance, could follow their own agenda under a hostile Catholic government and vice versa. The municipal level also played a crucial role in alleviating the tensions of democratization as a laboratory for electoral reform. On the other hand, in the long run municipal autonomy may have undermined the state's capacity to harness differences within the nation, by providing local interests an eminently patriotic excuse to escape the state's nationalising reach.
Research Interests:
This contribution focuses on the propaganda pence (denier de la propagande), a subscription list published regularly by the socialist paper Vooruit in Ghent (Belgium) at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The Belgian... more
This contribution focuses on the propaganda pence (denier de la propagande), a subscription list published regularly by the socialist paper Vooruit in Ghent (Belgium) at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The Belgian Workers' Party (Parti ouvrier belge) used the propaganda pence to collect money from its members. To interest donors in giving they were invited to formulate a short statement which would be published in a special section of the party papers. As a working class form of communication on the verge between spoken and written language, the propaganda pence statements offer a unique access to the everyday life of socialist workers. This paper analyses them through the prism of James C. Scott's concepts of public and hidden transcripts and Alf Lüdtke's Eigen-Sinn. The anonymity provided created a sequestered site where those who wrote in could voice their own concerns fairly openly. As a hidden transcript the propaganda pence had at least three functions: socializing and disciplining the in-group, clearly defining boundaries with the out-group and inverting the prevailing social relations. The latter is an illustration of what Alf Lüdtke calls Eigen-Sinn.
Research Interests: Nineteenth Century Studies, Popular Culture, History from Below, Everyday Life Studies, Microhistory, and 15 moreHistory of Everyday Life, Sociology of Everyday Life, Belgian History, Everyday Life, Social Democracy, Working-Class History, Historical Sources, Belle Epoque, Ordinary writing, Hidden Transcripts, Ordinary People, Microhistory and History of Everyday Life, Public Transcripts, James C. Scott, and Ghent
The study of political symbolism within the socialist movement has often neglected the 'red' attitudes towards the national flag, anthem and holiday. This paper offers a social-cultural approach to this issue, using the concepts of... more
The study of political symbolism within the socialist movement has often neglected the 'red' attitudes towards the national flag, anthem and holiday. This paper offers a social-cultural approach to this issue, using the concepts of oppositional patriotism, appropriation and Eigen-Sinn. The case at hand is the Belgian Workers' Party in the period 1885-1914. Particular attention is paid to the often neglected point of view of the rank and file.
The growing acceptance of the national symbols within the BWP was in tune with the rise of oppositional patriotism among other European social-democratic parties. Yet the BWP's attitude at any particular moment cannot be straightforwardly characterized as either appropriative or dismissive. Both positions always coexisted because a crucial characteristic of the party was the tension between its conciliatory efforts towards the progressive bourgeoisie and its harsh revolutionary rhetoric. As to the rank and file, their mostly hostile attitude shows the workings of Eigen-sinn and the restrictions of exclusively top down explanations of national identity construction. Yet at the same time it is clear that in the end they were unable to escape the structural constraints that lead the party to fully embrace oppositional patriotism, thus revealing the limits of bottom up processes.
The growing acceptance of the national symbols within the BWP was in tune with the rise of oppositional patriotism among other European social-democratic parties. Yet the BWP's attitude at any particular moment cannot be straightforwardly characterized as either appropriative or dismissive. Both positions always coexisted because a crucial characteristic of the party was the tension between its conciliatory efforts towards the progressive bourgeoisie and its harsh revolutionary rhetoric. As to the rank and file, their mostly hostile attitude shows the workings of Eigen-sinn and the restrictions of exclusively top down explanations of national identity construction. Yet at the same time it is clear that in the end they were unable to escape the structural constraints that lead the party to fully embrace oppositional patriotism, thus revealing the limits of bottom up processes.
Research Interests:
Since the establishment of the independent Belgian kingdom in 1830, numerous citizens have written a so-called letter of request or demande de secours to the royal family to ask for money or help in kind. Between 1865 and 1934, spanning... more
Since the establishment of the independent Belgian kingdom in 1830, numerous citizens have written a so-called letter of request or demande de secours to the royal family to ask for money or help in kind. Between 1865 and 1934, spanning Leopold II's and Albert I's reigns, the royal family received tens of thousands of these letters. Only a few hundred, though, have been preserved (as yet uncatalogued) in the Archives of the Royal Palace in Brussels. Using James C. Scott's concept of the 'public transcript' this chapter asks to what extent the 'official' royal imagery resounded in a sample of sixty letters of request to Leopold II and Queen Elisabeth, Albert I’s consort.
The letters reflect marked class differences. In showing themselves very modest and belittling themselves in the face of royal power, middle-class requesters explicitly appealed to the official transcript of royalism. The lower classes, however made less use of these strategies. They did not always seem to master the official transcript sufficiently to put it to conscious use, which puts a new perspective on Scott's insistence that the subordinate deliberately manipulate the dominant values to their own advantage. The official public transcript might at times have been too hard to read (and use) for the lower classes.
Linda Colley's appraisal of the British monarchy also applies to the Belgian case. From this sample of request letters, it appears that in Belgium the image of the king and queen as 'essentially the same as his [or her] subjects', gradually became popularized after Albert I's marriage to Elisabeth in 1900. Citizens were prompted to see their royal family 'as unique and as typical, as ritually splendid and remorselessly prosaic, as glorious and gemütlich both'.
The letters reflect marked class differences. In showing themselves very modest and belittling themselves in the face of royal power, middle-class requesters explicitly appealed to the official transcript of royalism. The lower classes, however made less use of these strategies. They did not always seem to master the official transcript sufficiently to put it to conscious use, which puts a new perspective on Scott's insistence that the subordinate deliberately manipulate the dominant values to their own advantage. The official public transcript might at times have been too hard to read (and use) for the lower classes.
Linda Colley's appraisal of the British monarchy also applies to the Belgian case. From this sample of request letters, it appears that in Belgium the image of the king and queen as 'essentially the same as his [or her] subjects', gradually became popularized after Albert I's marriage to Elisabeth in 1900. Citizens were prompted to see their royal family 'as unique and as typical, as ritually splendid and remorselessly prosaic, as glorious and gemütlich both'.
Research Interests: Working Classes, Popular Culture, Class, History from Below, History of Reading and Writing, and 15 moreHistory of Middle Classes, Belgian History, Autobiographical Self-Representation, Middle Class Identity, Monarchy, Working-Class History, Royalism, Monarchism, Letter Writing, Ego documents, Royal Family of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Leopold II (King of Belgians), Public Transcripts, Royal family, and James C. Scott
The image of the Belgian Workers' Party as a solid party unchallenged by ethnic tensions and united around a common Belgianness does not stand up to historical scrutiny. Using the key concepts of imagined communities, ethnies,... more
The image of the Belgian Workers' Party as a solid party unchallenged by ethnic tensions and united around a common Belgianness does not stand up to historical scrutiny. Using the key concepts of imagined communities, ethnies, mythomoteur,and oppositional patriotism, this article argues that despite its undeniable integration into the political, social and economic structures of the Belgian nation-state, the BWP was ethnically divided between Flemish and Walloon socialists in the period 1885–1914.
Research Interests: European History, European Studies, Nineteenth Century Studies, Nationalism, National Identity, and 15 moreEthnicity, Belgian History, Nations and nationalism, Social Democracy, Invented Traditions, Belle Epoque, Imagined Communities, Brussels, Flanders, Benedict Anderson, Wallonia, Ethnicity and National Identity, Ethnie, Anthony D. Smith, and mythomoteur
This paper deals with the two main interwar Flemish nationalist women's organisations of the extreme right in Belgium: the 'Katholieke Vlaamsche meisjesbeweging' (Catholic Flemish Girls' Movement) and the 'Vlaamsch-Nationaal... more
This paper deals with the two main interwar Flemish nationalist women's organisations of the extreme right in Belgium: the 'Katholieke Vlaamsche meisjesbeweging' (Catholic Flemish Girls' Movement) and the 'Vlaamsch-Nationaal Vrouwenverbond' (Flemish National Women's League). Drawing on Karen Offen's distinction between 'relational' and 'individualist' feminism it is argued that they were not uniformly anti-feminist: they drew on a 'relational' tradition to justify women's public and political participation. Women were attracted to these organisations which appeared to denigrate their rights, because in neither were they treated as mere objects of discourse. They actively engaged in the production of a nationalist discourse of their own, they felt empowered and had opportunities for agency. Their public adherence to the values of motherhood and married life did not imply private ascription to them. Finally, the impact of the 'pillarisation' (verzuiling) of Belgian society on Flemish nationalist gender views is looked into, and compared to other European countries.
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Le discours public belge semble généralement tenir pour acquis que la nation flamande est fondée sur des principes ethniques tels la filiation et le droit du sang. La société wallonne, par contre, se dit ouverte à tous et tient le... more
Le discours public belge semble généralement tenir pour acquis que la nation flamande est fondée sur des principes ethniques tels la filiation et le droit du sang. La société wallonne, par contre, se dit ouverte à tous et tient le principe de citoyenneté en haute estime. L’Encyclopédie du Mouvement wallon, parue récemment, s’inscrit dans cette tradition dichotomique, mais elle présente une image trop citoyenne de la Wallonie et trop ethnique de la Flandre. Une lecture approfondie de l’Encyclopédie indique que les wallingants définissent également leur ‘peuple’ par des critères ethniques. Finalement, il semble que chaque construction de nation se fonde sur des éléments citoyens volontaristes et sur des données ethno-culturelles; il n’est pas question de cloison étanche entre les deux principes, mais d’interaction.
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Miroslav Hroch has been extremely influential during his long and prolific career. One could say that he has literally written the ABC of nationalism research with his description of the development of national movements (from phase A... more
Miroslav Hroch has been extremely influential during his long and prolific career. One could say that he has literally written the ABC of nationalism research with his description of the development of national movements (from phase A 'folkloric interest' over B 'patriotic agitation' to C 'mass movement'). In the last few years he has extensively elaborated on his seminal Die Vorkämpfer der nationalen Bewegung bei den kleinen Völkern Europas (1968) in two books: In the national interest. Demands and goals of european national movements of the nineteenth century: a comparative perspective (2001) and Das Europa der Nationen. Die moderne Nationsbildung im europäischen Vergleich (2005). In 2007 his impressive body of work was supplemented by the present collection which gathers 29 loose essays in English, German and French, published between 1970 and 2005. There has been no editorial intervention whatsoever in the original texts. The articles have been simply reprinted with their original typeface, lay-out and page numbers.
In the preface Hroch describes two of his basic research interests: the construction of national identity among 'smaller', 'stateless' nations or 'non-dominant ethnic groups' during the nineteenth century and the uneven pace of the transition from the Ancien Regime to modern capitalist society. These two issues are spread out unevenly over the four main parts of this book. Parts 1 'National Movements', 2 'Nationalism' and 3 'Historical heritage' are all concerned with the first issue and account for four fifths of the book, part 4 'Social Change' with the latter. The common concern tying Hroch's oeuvre together is comparativism. He is a staunch defender of the comparative method and a well-versed connoisseur of the most diverse European histories.
Part 1 deals with the structural changes accompanying the rise of small European nations. It tackles issues such as the social background of patriots, their motives in adopting a new national identity, the transformance of ethnic communities into small nations and the importance of language in small national movements. Hroch elucidates his argument with examples drawn from all over Europe (in one chapter, for example, he 'normalizes' Zionism as a national movement comparable to others in Europe).
Part 2 'Nationalism' is a rather uneven collection of an extensive review by Hroch of Roman Sporzluk's book on Communism and nationalism: Karl Marx versus Friedrich List (1988), two essays comparing the resurgence of nationalism in post-communist Europe to the nineteenth century hey-day of national movements and a critical assesment of Eugen Lemberg's nationalism theory.
Part 3 'Historical heritage' brings together three studies on the role of historical belles-lettres in the shaping of Czech and German national images, a comparison of the construction of Czech, Greek, Norwegian and Turkish national history, and the place of Europe in the Czech national movement.
One of the overarching themes in the three first parts of the book is Hroch's rejection of the oversimplified constructivist notion that nationalisms create nations. Disagreeing with the majority of contemporary research and explicitly taking leave of Ernest Gellner he claims that "we cannot study the process of nation-formation as a mere by-product of nebulous 'nationalism'. We have to understand it as a part of a social and cultural transformation and a component of the modernization of European societies". (x) Mass nationalism is only possible when three conditions are met, and these are independent of nationalists' wishes: 1) growing communication and mobility, 2) a convergence of national and social demands, 3) the presence of older ethnic identities. In this last instance he clearly agrees with Anthony D Smith's critique of modernism. Hroch is also sceptical about overly moralistic descriptions of nationalism as outdated, backward-looking and irrational. He claims that such a normative approach obscures rather than enlightens the phenomenon.
Part 4, finally, contains four articles of a completely different scope, highlighting Hroch's interest in social change. The first two focus on Central-European trade in the period 1550-1650 and the reception of the French revolution throughout Europe during the years 1789-1799. The last two are ambitious wide-ranging attempts at drafting a typology of revolutions and at explaining uneven development throughout European history.
Ultimately, this collection does beg one question: why exactly were these chapters chosen for re-publication? Most are well known articles published in readily accesible books or journals, hardly hidden gems which needed to be unearthed for future reference. As Hroch, the nationalism scholar, is well known to most historians, this book might have been an opportunity to present more unfamiliar, but equally interesting aspects of his work. This of course does not detract in the least from the high quality of thought-provoking articles in this volume.
In the preface Hroch describes two of his basic research interests: the construction of national identity among 'smaller', 'stateless' nations or 'non-dominant ethnic groups' during the nineteenth century and the uneven pace of the transition from the Ancien Regime to modern capitalist society. These two issues are spread out unevenly over the four main parts of this book. Parts 1 'National Movements', 2 'Nationalism' and 3 'Historical heritage' are all concerned with the first issue and account for four fifths of the book, part 4 'Social Change' with the latter. The common concern tying Hroch's oeuvre together is comparativism. He is a staunch defender of the comparative method and a well-versed connoisseur of the most diverse European histories.
Part 1 deals with the structural changes accompanying the rise of small European nations. It tackles issues such as the social background of patriots, their motives in adopting a new national identity, the transformance of ethnic communities into small nations and the importance of language in small national movements. Hroch elucidates his argument with examples drawn from all over Europe (in one chapter, for example, he 'normalizes' Zionism as a national movement comparable to others in Europe).
Part 2 'Nationalism' is a rather uneven collection of an extensive review by Hroch of Roman Sporzluk's book on Communism and nationalism: Karl Marx versus Friedrich List (1988), two essays comparing the resurgence of nationalism in post-communist Europe to the nineteenth century hey-day of national movements and a critical assesment of Eugen Lemberg's nationalism theory.
Part 3 'Historical heritage' brings together three studies on the role of historical belles-lettres in the shaping of Czech and German national images, a comparison of the construction of Czech, Greek, Norwegian and Turkish national history, and the place of Europe in the Czech national movement.
One of the overarching themes in the three first parts of the book is Hroch's rejection of the oversimplified constructivist notion that nationalisms create nations. Disagreeing with the majority of contemporary research and explicitly taking leave of Ernest Gellner he claims that "we cannot study the process of nation-formation as a mere by-product of nebulous 'nationalism'. We have to understand it as a part of a social and cultural transformation and a component of the modernization of European societies". (x) Mass nationalism is only possible when three conditions are met, and these are independent of nationalists' wishes: 1) growing communication and mobility, 2) a convergence of national and social demands, 3) the presence of older ethnic identities. In this last instance he clearly agrees with Anthony D Smith's critique of modernism. Hroch is also sceptical about overly moralistic descriptions of nationalism as outdated, backward-looking and irrational. He claims that such a normative approach obscures rather than enlightens the phenomenon.
Part 4, finally, contains four articles of a completely different scope, highlighting Hroch's interest in social change. The first two focus on Central-European trade in the period 1550-1650 and the reception of the French revolution throughout Europe during the years 1789-1799. The last two are ambitious wide-ranging attempts at drafting a typology of revolutions and at explaining uneven development throughout European history.
Ultimately, this collection does beg one question: why exactly were these chapters chosen for re-publication? Most are well known articles published in readily accesible books or journals, hardly hidden gems which needed to be unearthed for future reference. As Hroch, the nationalism scholar, is well known to most historians, this book might have been an opportunity to present more unfamiliar, but equally interesting aspects of his work. This of course does not detract in the least from the high quality of thought-provoking articles in this volume.
Research Interests:
The collection Free access to the past. Romanticism, cultural heritage and the nation is the second volume in the National cultivation of culture series, whose general editor is Joep Leerssen. In general terms this volume investigates the... more
The collection Free access to the past. Romanticism, cultural heritage and the nation is the second volume in the National cultivation of culture series, whose general editor is Joep Leerssen. In general terms this volume investigates the relationship between a developing bourgeois public sphere, the rise of romanticism, changing conceptions about the past, the popularisation of history, the broadening of audiences and the nationalisation of society.
Joep Leerssen's introductory essay outlines the central theme, viz. the crucial shift around 1800 from private to public history. At the turn of the nineteenth century, history went beyond the realm of private associations and collections and fully entered the sphere of public museums, libraries, archives and university institutes. The past was disseminated by way of text editions, philological studies, historical novels, plays, operas, and paintings, monuments and restorations. This shift was part of the modernization process. The secularization of monastic libraries throughout Europe opened up long forgotten documents to public scrutiny and access. This rediscovery of history resulted in the spread of a romantic national historicism. A new conception of the past emerged: the past as different and unfamiliar, not a mere continuation of traditions into the present. Due to the concomitant rise of romanticism, the past was no longer solely evoked in 'universally Western' scenes from biblical or Greco-Roman times, but increasingly in topoi celebrating the medieval and tribal roots of the nation.
It is Leerssen's explicit aim (and a central concern of his prolific work) to complement materialist narratives of socio-economic modernization in explaining the rise of nationalism with a sensitivity for the autonomy of culture. Leerssen contends that cultural developments are no mere reflection of a socio-economic base. They have a logic of their own which sometimes contradicts purely material evolutions. In his introduction to this volume Leerssen argues that already around 1800 national historicism pervaded European societies, at least coterminous with the modernizing processes that are central to several theories of nationalism.
The 14 chapters that follow Leerssen's introduction mainly focus on Western Europe (the exceptions being an article on Hungary, one on the US and one on West-Africa and Indonesia). They are divided into 4 main parts. The first part, 'The appropiation of the past', contains 4 contributions. Leerssen offers a case study of the intellectual milieu of the Grimms. Peter Fritzsche and Marita Mathijsen both survey changing views of the past due to the French Revolution. Anne-Marie Thiesse analyses the Gauls as a lieu de mémoire.
The three remaining parts contain detailed case studies of diverse subjects. In Part 2 'Monuments for the past' we find chapters on state funerals in London and Paris (Eveline Bouwers), editorial scholarship in Sweden (Paula Henrikson) and the rise of historical literary genres in the Netherlands (Lotte Jensen). Part 3 'A public for the past' contains articles on art reproductions in Europe (Robert Verhoogt), the national museum in the Netherlands (Ellinoor Bergvelt), an analysis of three operas in terms of European imperialism (Peter Rietbergen), national opera in Hungary (Krisztina Lajosi), and history education in revolutionary France (Matthias Meirlaen). The final part 'Past and present' focuses on the question whether issues about public history and romanticism can be applied to the US (Sharon Ann Holt) or to twentieth-century post-colonial states (Susanne Legêne).
This division in 4 main parts is fairly loose. It is unclear why certain contributions feature in one part rather than in another. The editors provide no clue as to the general structure of the volume. This reflects a certain editorial nonchalance. For instance, we only learn offhandedly that these are the proceedings of a conference (an oblique mention on p. 291). A general conclusion is also lacking. This is unfortunate because a comprehensive conclusion bringing together the common threads of the contributions and reaching back to Leerssen's introduction could have provided unity to the volume. As they stand now, the case studies are interesting as examples of the past becoming public, but few address the complex nexus of issues raised by Leerssen. Most contributions remain silent about the autonomy of the cultural sphere or the conjunction between socio-economic modernization and the rise of national historicism. Bergvelt is the only one who directly tackles these questions in her chapter on the Dutch national museum. She argues that in the first half of the nineteenth century, the national art museum did not focus on the masters of the Dutch Golden Age or on romantic depictions of the nation's past because art historians were still influenced by neo-classical standards rather than romantic ones. The cultural preferences of Dutch art historians proved more important. This is clearly a case of the cultural realm trumping political and socio-economic constraints, as Joep Leerssen's central thesis claims.
All in all, this is a volume with interesting case studies, but it could have been more coherent.
Joep Leerssen's introductory essay outlines the central theme, viz. the crucial shift around 1800 from private to public history. At the turn of the nineteenth century, history went beyond the realm of private associations and collections and fully entered the sphere of public museums, libraries, archives and university institutes. The past was disseminated by way of text editions, philological studies, historical novels, plays, operas, and paintings, monuments and restorations. This shift was part of the modernization process. The secularization of monastic libraries throughout Europe opened up long forgotten documents to public scrutiny and access. This rediscovery of history resulted in the spread of a romantic national historicism. A new conception of the past emerged: the past as different and unfamiliar, not a mere continuation of traditions into the present. Due to the concomitant rise of romanticism, the past was no longer solely evoked in 'universally Western' scenes from biblical or Greco-Roman times, but increasingly in topoi celebrating the medieval and tribal roots of the nation.
It is Leerssen's explicit aim (and a central concern of his prolific work) to complement materialist narratives of socio-economic modernization in explaining the rise of nationalism with a sensitivity for the autonomy of culture. Leerssen contends that cultural developments are no mere reflection of a socio-economic base. They have a logic of their own which sometimes contradicts purely material evolutions. In his introduction to this volume Leerssen argues that already around 1800 national historicism pervaded European societies, at least coterminous with the modernizing processes that are central to several theories of nationalism.
The 14 chapters that follow Leerssen's introduction mainly focus on Western Europe (the exceptions being an article on Hungary, one on the US and one on West-Africa and Indonesia). They are divided into 4 main parts. The first part, 'The appropiation of the past', contains 4 contributions. Leerssen offers a case study of the intellectual milieu of the Grimms. Peter Fritzsche and Marita Mathijsen both survey changing views of the past due to the French Revolution. Anne-Marie Thiesse analyses the Gauls as a lieu de mémoire.
The three remaining parts contain detailed case studies of diverse subjects. In Part 2 'Monuments for the past' we find chapters on state funerals in London and Paris (Eveline Bouwers), editorial scholarship in Sweden (Paula Henrikson) and the rise of historical literary genres in the Netherlands (Lotte Jensen). Part 3 'A public for the past' contains articles on art reproductions in Europe (Robert Verhoogt), the national museum in the Netherlands (Ellinoor Bergvelt), an analysis of three operas in terms of European imperialism (Peter Rietbergen), national opera in Hungary (Krisztina Lajosi), and history education in revolutionary France (Matthias Meirlaen). The final part 'Past and present' focuses on the question whether issues about public history and romanticism can be applied to the US (Sharon Ann Holt) or to twentieth-century post-colonial states (Susanne Legêne).
This division in 4 main parts is fairly loose. It is unclear why certain contributions feature in one part rather than in another. The editors provide no clue as to the general structure of the volume. This reflects a certain editorial nonchalance. For instance, we only learn offhandedly that these are the proceedings of a conference (an oblique mention on p. 291). A general conclusion is also lacking. This is unfortunate because a comprehensive conclusion bringing together the common threads of the contributions and reaching back to Leerssen's introduction could have provided unity to the volume. As they stand now, the case studies are interesting as examples of the past becoming public, but few address the complex nexus of issues raised by Leerssen. Most contributions remain silent about the autonomy of the cultural sphere or the conjunction between socio-economic modernization and the rise of national historicism. Bergvelt is the only one who directly tackles these questions in her chapter on the Dutch national museum. She argues that in the first half of the nineteenth century, the national art museum did not focus on the masters of the Dutch Golden Age or on romantic depictions of the nation's past because art historians were still influenced by neo-classical standards rather than romantic ones. The cultural preferences of Dutch art historians proved more important. This is clearly a case of the cultural realm trumping political and socio-economic constraints, as Joep Leerssen's central thesis claims.
All in all, this is a volume with interesting case studies, but it could have been more coherent.
Research Interests:
This hefty book of over 700 pages is Dennis Bos’s wideranging treatment of the 1871 Paris Commune. The book is explicitly not meant to be a history of the fateful 72 days that shook the world, bur rather of its ‘afterlife’: the global... more
This hefty book of over 700 pages is Dennis Bos’s wideranging treatment of the 1871 Paris Commune. The book is explicitly not meant to be a history of the fateful 72 days that shook the world, bur rather of its ‘afterlife’: the global memory and commemoration of the Commune in socialist circles since 1871. Bos’s central concern is “the question how the international socialist movement kept the memory of the Paris Commune alive, why it chose to do so and how collective remembrance [...] moulded a transnational battle culture.” (18; all translations are mine) Bos claims that the Commune was so central to the development of socialism that it became a kind of litmus test. In all major ideological and practical discussions within socialism (social movement vs. political party, authority vs. autonomy, mass vs. vanguard, federalism vs. centralism, reformism vs. revolution, etc.), the commune has been invoked as the final argument to separate ‘true’ from ‘false’ socialists. As Bos astutely remarks, the legend of the commune succeeded where the revolution itself had miserably failed.
The book falls into two larger parts. The first 8 chapters deal with the origin, development and international dissemination of a socialist remembrance culture, mainly in nineteenth-century Europe and the US. In these chapters Bos sets out the main causes behind the rapid spread of the legend of the Commune: the prominent role of foreigners in the Paris events of 1871, the network of the First International and the role of Marx, the post factum diaspora of surviving Communards and the dissemination of the Commune legend among French, German, Dutch, Belgian and American socialists. The subsequent 7 chapters delve into the memory topoi of the Commune up to the Centenary in 1971, with examples from outside Europe and the US as well. Here Bos focuses on hope and inspiration, eroticism, the cult of death, and revenge in the ways socialists commemorated 1871.
The best sections of this book are written in an engaging style, have a compelling narrative momentum and give insight into the larger picture while doing justice to individual human experience. I especially enjoyed the fourth chapter on the vicissitudes within the general council of the First International. Bos describes Marx and Engels as stalling for time while the revolution was in full swing, not extending support towards the Communards even after explicit calls for help from Paris. The fourteenth chapter on Père Lachaise and the monuments erected on the graveyard site is equally enthralling. The book contains several insightful chapters like these.
In a way, this summary does injustice to the incredible richness of the materials gathered by Bos, because he also digresses about topics as diverse as socialist eccentricity (e.g. the adventurers drawn in by the Commune revolution), the role of prostitution during the Commune, American precursors of free love, children in Commune mythography, etc. Moreover he also chronicles the bourgeois counter imagery of the Commune. These digressions are always very intriguing and original, but they also hint at a central weakness of the book: the main gist is sometimes lost in a wealth of details. Overall, the text has a rather meandering character and could have done with extra text-editing to make the narrative crisper and to separate the central message of the book more radically from the many (admittedly interesting) details. Symptomatically, illustrations are scattered throughout the text without any explanatory titles, often without any reference to them in the running text. This is in no way abetted by the lack of a general conclusion to the book. The last chapter merely discusses the centenary celebrations of 1971.
Part of my criticism stems from the dual nature of this book. On the one hand, it is the result of a research project supervised by Henk Te Velde at the universities of Groningen and Leiden. On the other hand, it is published by Wereldbibliotheek, a general-reader publishing house. As a result some uneasy compromises seem to have been made between readability and academic depth. This is reflected in the short introduction which sheds little light on the choices, theories, concepts and historiography underpinning Bos’s analysis. The book contains some excursions outside the West to the USSR, China, Vietnam and Cambodia, but why these are included rather than Latin-American or African examples is not clear. What, for instance, was the more general role of the Commune legend in post-WWII decolonisation struggles? The lack of theoretical grounding especially struck me in the chapter on eroticism, which offers a pop-psychological, “phallic” reading of the Commune and its aftermath without referring to the conceptual debates behind it.
Hardly any mention is made of the vast research on collective memory and public remembrance. The equally expansive literature on the Commune is briefly summarised in the introduction. Consequently, it is often hard for the reader to discern which parts of Bos’s reading are original vis-à-vis the existing scholarly consensus. A more conceptually and theoretically infused analysis could have substantiated some of Bos’s central contentions. For one, he claims a “remarkably uniform” (146) and relatively stable Commune memory throughout the years. According to Bos this is mainly due to the classic status of Marx’s and Hippolite Prosper-Olivier Lissagaray’s early histories, resp. The civil war in France (1871) and Histoire de la commune de 1871 (1876). Relatively little attention is paid to diachronic and synchronic variations within the Commune memory. For instance, how did the commemoration fare when May 1st gradually became the main annual moment of socialist celebration? What happened to the revolutionary imagery when reformism, Organisationspatriotismus and ‘revolutionary attentism’ started to gain ground within social-democracy during the belle époque? In Belgium, an example Bos often refers to, the Commune cult was overshadowed by May 1st celebrations already in the 1890s. Another neglected question is whether the Commune imagery might have become ‘nationalised’, especially in an era when ‘inter-nationalism’, social patriotism and oppositional patriotism were on the rise. Generally, Bos reflects too little on the social functions of commemoration. In the introduction he claims that “there is no reason to fear that the long second life of the Commune will soon come to an end and that the memory of the Commune will pass into oblivion.” (18) Past myths can only survive when they are linked to present-day concerns and interests. So the question is which useful social function the Commune can still have for contemporary socialists, also outside the West.
All in all this is a great feat of scholarly research. Bos’s mastery of languages and sources is impressive, but the book could have used some extra editorial and analytical rigour.
The book falls into two larger parts. The first 8 chapters deal with the origin, development and international dissemination of a socialist remembrance culture, mainly in nineteenth-century Europe and the US. In these chapters Bos sets out the main causes behind the rapid spread of the legend of the Commune: the prominent role of foreigners in the Paris events of 1871, the network of the First International and the role of Marx, the post factum diaspora of surviving Communards and the dissemination of the Commune legend among French, German, Dutch, Belgian and American socialists. The subsequent 7 chapters delve into the memory topoi of the Commune up to the Centenary in 1971, with examples from outside Europe and the US as well. Here Bos focuses on hope and inspiration, eroticism, the cult of death, and revenge in the ways socialists commemorated 1871.
The best sections of this book are written in an engaging style, have a compelling narrative momentum and give insight into the larger picture while doing justice to individual human experience. I especially enjoyed the fourth chapter on the vicissitudes within the general council of the First International. Bos describes Marx and Engels as stalling for time while the revolution was in full swing, not extending support towards the Communards even after explicit calls for help from Paris. The fourteenth chapter on Père Lachaise and the monuments erected on the graveyard site is equally enthralling. The book contains several insightful chapters like these.
In a way, this summary does injustice to the incredible richness of the materials gathered by Bos, because he also digresses about topics as diverse as socialist eccentricity (e.g. the adventurers drawn in by the Commune revolution), the role of prostitution during the Commune, American precursors of free love, children in Commune mythography, etc. Moreover he also chronicles the bourgeois counter imagery of the Commune. These digressions are always very intriguing and original, but they also hint at a central weakness of the book: the main gist is sometimes lost in a wealth of details. Overall, the text has a rather meandering character and could have done with extra text-editing to make the narrative crisper and to separate the central message of the book more radically from the many (admittedly interesting) details. Symptomatically, illustrations are scattered throughout the text without any explanatory titles, often without any reference to them in the running text. This is in no way abetted by the lack of a general conclusion to the book. The last chapter merely discusses the centenary celebrations of 1971.
Part of my criticism stems from the dual nature of this book. On the one hand, it is the result of a research project supervised by Henk Te Velde at the universities of Groningen and Leiden. On the other hand, it is published by Wereldbibliotheek, a general-reader publishing house. As a result some uneasy compromises seem to have been made between readability and academic depth. This is reflected in the short introduction which sheds little light on the choices, theories, concepts and historiography underpinning Bos’s analysis. The book contains some excursions outside the West to the USSR, China, Vietnam and Cambodia, but why these are included rather than Latin-American or African examples is not clear. What, for instance, was the more general role of the Commune legend in post-WWII decolonisation struggles? The lack of theoretical grounding especially struck me in the chapter on eroticism, which offers a pop-psychological, “phallic” reading of the Commune and its aftermath without referring to the conceptual debates behind it.
Hardly any mention is made of the vast research on collective memory and public remembrance. The equally expansive literature on the Commune is briefly summarised in the introduction. Consequently, it is often hard for the reader to discern which parts of Bos’s reading are original vis-à-vis the existing scholarly consensus. A more conceptually and theoretically infused analysis could have substantiated some of Bos’s central contentions. For one, he claims a “remarkably uniform” (146) and relatively stable Commune memory throughout the years. According to Bos this is mainly due to the classic status of Marx’s and Hippolite Prosper-Olivier Lissagaray’s early histories, resp. The civil war in France (1871) and Histoire de la commune de 1871 (1876). Relatively little attention is paid to diachronic and synchronic variations within the Commune memory. For instance, how did the commemoration fare when May 1st gradually became the main annual moment of socialist celebration? What happened to the revolutionary imagery when reformism, Organisationspatriotismus and ‘revolutionary attentism’ started to gain ground within social-democracy during the belle époque? In Belgium, an example Bos often refers to, the Commune cult was overshadowed by May 1st celebrations already in the 1890s. Another neglected question is whether the Commune imagery might have become ‘nationalised’, especially in an era when ‘inter-nationalism’, social patriotism and oppositional patriotism were on the rise. Generally, Bos reflects too little on the social functions of commemoration. In the introduction he claims that “there is no reason to fear that the long second life of the Commune will soon come to an end and that the memory of the Commune will pass into oblivion.” (18) Past myths can only survive when they are linked to present-day concerns and interests. So the question is which useful social function the Commune can still have for contemporary socialists, also outside the West.
All in all this is a great feat of scholarly research. Bos’s mastery of languages and sources is impressive, but the book could have used some extra editorial and analytical rigour.
Research Interests:
Biographical article in Dutch about Rosa de Guchtenaere, the most famous interwar Flemish nationalist woman. Met Jef van Extergem en Herman van den Reeck is Rosa de Guchtenaere een van de zeldzame figuren die zowel door Links als Rechts... more
Biographical article in Dutch about Rosa de Guchtenaere, the most famous interwar Flemish nationalist woman.
Met Jef van Extergem en Herman van den Reeck is Rosa de Guchtenaere een van de zeldzame figuren die zowel door Links als Rechts ‘geclaimd’ worden. Haar rijk gevulde leven biedt immers voor elk wat wils. Bovendien is harde, betrouwbare informatie over haar schaars en verspreid over tal van bronnen. De wetenschappelijke artikelen en populariserende reminiscenties die aan haar gewijd zijn, compileren vooral bekende feiten. Tot nu toe ontbrak echter een synthese en werd haar correspondentie stiefmoederlijk behandeld door onderzoekers. Dit artikel wil daar verandering in brengen.
Met Jef van Extergem en Herman van den Reeck is Rosa de Guchtenaere een van de zeldzame figuren die zowel door Links als Rechts ‘geclaimd’ worden. Haar rijk gevulde leven biedt immers voor elk wat wils. Bovendien is harde, betrouwbare informatie over haar schaars en verspreid over tal van bronnen. De wetenschappelijke artikelen en populariserende reminiscenties die aan haar gewijd zijn, compileren vooral bekende feiten. Tot nu toe ontbrak echter een synthese en werd haar correspondentie stiefmoederlijk behandeld door onderzoekers. Dit artikel wil daar verandering in brengen.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Myths and martyrs in Flemish nationalism. The representation of Rosa de Guchtenaere (1875-1942) In the interwar period Rosa de Guchtenaere was thé female paragon of Flemish nationalism. With the theories of Anthony D. Smith and Adrian... more
Myths and martyrs in Flemish nationalism. The representation of Rosa de Guchtenaere (1875-1942)
In the interwar period Rosa de Guchtenaere was thé female paragon of Flemish nationalism. With the theories of Anthony D. Smith and Adrian Hastings in mind, I trace the religious dimensions of her representation (as Christ, martyr and missionary) and her place within the Flemish nationalist mythomoteur. After her death Flemish nationalists both on the extreme right and the far left claimed De Guchtenaere’s spiritual legacy. My research shows that she was a feminist and democratic nationalist untill shortly after WWI. After 1921 she slowly evolved into an anti-democratic and racist nationalist. No group can claim her exclusively for its own interests.
In the interwar period Rosa de Guchtenaere was thé female paragon of Flemish nationalism. With the theories of Anthony D. Smith and Adrian Hastings in mind, I trace the religious dimensions of her representation (as Christ, martyr and missionary) and her place within the Flemish nationalist mythomoteur. After her death Flemish nationalists both on the extreme right and the far left claimed De Guchtenaere’s spiritual legacy. My research shows that she was a feminist and democratic nationalist untill shortly after WWI. After 1921 she slowly evolved into an anti-democratic and racist nationalist. No group can claim her exclusively for its own interests.
Research Interests:
Meer dan één Vlaamsgezinde heeft met weemoed teruggekeken naar het “Grote Nederland” van voor de “Val” van Antwerpen of naar de kortstondige reïncarnatie in het Verenigd Koninkrijk der Nederlanden. Die liefde uit het Zuiden werd echter... more
Meer dan één Vlaamsgezinde heeft met weemoed teruggekeken naar het “Grote Nederland” van voor de “Val” van Antwerpen of naar de kortstondige reïncarnatie in het Verenigd Koninkrijk der Nederlanden. Die liefde uit het Zuiden werd echter maar mondjesmaat en met almaar minder gusto beantwoord in het Noorden. Groot-Nederland werd zo het negatief van de Oranjemythe. Beide evolueerden ze van een oorspronkelijk grensoverschrijdend tot een overwegend Vlaams resp. Nederlands symbool, maar terwijl de Oranjecultus steeds meer momentum kreeg, gleed de Groot-Nederlandse gedachte naar de marge af. Mobiliseren doet ze - in tegenstelling tot Oranje - al lang niet meer. 'Trou de mémoire' lijkt dan ook een passender omschrijving dan 'lieu de mémoire'.
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In dit hoofdstuk wordt het collectief verzet aan de Antwerpse haven gekaderd in een lange traditie van sociale organisatie en collectieve actie, gaande van de ambachten en gezellenverenigingen in het ancien régime tot de moderne... more
In dit hoofdstuk wordt het collectief verzet aan de Antwerpse haven gekaderd in een lange traditie van sociale organisatie en collectieve actie, gaande van de ambachten en gezellenverenigingen in het ancien régime tot de moderne vakbonden. De rode draad van dit hoofdstuk is tweeledig. Enerzijds bekijken we wat de specificiteit van Antwerpen was en vergelijken we met andere steden, zowel in België als in het buitenland. Anderzijds gaan we na of er continuïteit was tussen het ancien régime en de moderne periode. De Franse revolutie kunnen we immers beschouwen als een radicaal breukmoment, maar verschillende structuren, praktijken en vertogen uit de ambachtswereld overleefden tot in de twintigste eeuw. Zo werden sommige ambachten en gezellenverenigingen opnieuw opgericht als hulpkassen voor onderlinge bijstand. In het discours van zowel de katholieke en de socialistische arbeidersbeweging als van de organisaties voor kleine zelfstandigen werd de middeleeuwse 'gildentijd' geïdealiseerd als een gouden tijdperk. Voor socialisten waren de ambachten een vorm van basisdemocratie waarmee arbeiders hun rechten verdedigden tegenover patriciërs (lokale bestuurders en handelaars). Hun interpretatie stond in het teken van de klassenstrijd. Het zogenaamde 'corporatisme' van de christelijke arbeidersbeweging daarentegen zag in de ambachten een vorm van klassenverzoening tussen werkgevers en werknemers. Zowel katholieken als socialisten gaven een nieuwe, moderne betekenis aan een oude praktijk met de bedoeling om zichzelf te legitimeren als de echte vertegenwoordigers van de arbeiders. Bij alle structuren, praktijken en vertogen uit de ambachtswereld die het ancien régime overleefden, moeten we ons dan ook de vraag stellen in hoeverre er reële continuïteit was tussen de laatste ambachten, gezellenverenigingen en naties (zoals de ambachten aan de Antwerpse haven heetten) vóór 1795 en de eerste hulpkassen erna. Jammer genoeg laat de huidige stand van het onderzoek niet toe deze vraag te beantwoorden. Wat wel kan, is speuren naar overeenkomsten en verschilpunten tussen enerzijds verenigingen van handwerkslieden in het ancien régime en anderzijds de moderne middenstands- en arbeidersbewegingen en het zogenaamde neo-corporatistische overlegmodel die in de negentiende en twintigste eeuw tot stand kwamen. In dit hoofdstuk geven we daar, met bijzondere aandacht voor Antwerpen, een aanzet toe.
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Het begrip 'national indifference' is sinds 2000 in zwang bij historici die onderzoek doen naar Centraal-Europa (vooral naar de Oostenrijkse helft van de Dubbelmonarchie). Ze betogen dat het Habsburgse rijk niet gedoemd was om ten onder... more
Het begrip 'national indifference' is sinds 2000 in zwang bij historici die onderzoek doen naar Centraal-Europa (vooral naar de Oostenrijkse helft van de Dubbelmonarchie). Ze betogen dat het Habsburgse rijk niet gedoemd was om ten onder te gaan aan het nationaliteitenconflict. De meerderheid van de bevolking was immers 'nationaal onverschillig' in drie betekenissen: ze wezen al dan niet bewust nationale denkcategorieën af, ze veranderden hun nationale loyauteit opportunistisch en verwierpen de claims van nationalisten over 'het volk' door bijvoorbeeld vast te houden aan meertaligheidspraktijken. Nationale onverschilligheid is expliciet geen pre-modern relict, maar integendeel een zeer moderne reactie op de (nationalistische) massapolitiek. In dit artikel introduceer ik het begrip en analyseer ik de toepasbaarheid ervan op de Belgische casus. Hoewel ik enkele cruciale punten van kritiek formuleer, blijf ik overtuigd van het nut en het bestaansrecht van het begrip. De belangrijkste reden is dat 'national indifference' toelaat om een van de cruciale vraagstukken binnen het natie-en nationalismeonderzoek te thematiseren, met name de vraag in welke mate nationalistische vertogen vanwege elites, overheden of sociale bewegingen uit de middenklasse weerklank vinden aan de basis van de samenleving. De onderzoekstraditie van het banale nationalisme gaat ervan uit dat de intensiteit van deze vertogen recht evenredig is met de interiorisatie ervan door het geïntendeerde publiek. Het paradigma van de nationale onverschilligheid vertrekt van een tegengestelde inschatting, namelijk het idee dat hevige nationalistische vertogen in feite een zwaktebod zijn die verhullen dat het gewone volk zich bewust of onbewust verzet.
Research Interests: Discourse, Nationalism, Habsburg Studies, History from Below, National Identity, and 10 moreEthnicity, Belgian History, Nations and nationalism, Everyday Nationalism, Banal nationalism, Ethnicity and National Identity, Habsburg Monarchy, Nationalism and Nationalist Discourses, Rogers Brubaker, and National Indifference
This article offers a historiographic review of Belgian and Dutch nationhood during the long nineteenth century. It is argued that history from below is weakly represented. In the late 1980s the subjectivist turn was adopted in research... more
This article offers a historiographic review of Belgian and Dutch nationhood during the long nineteenth century. It is argued that history from below is weakly represented. In the late 1980s the subjectivist turn was adopted in research on Belgian and Dutch nationalism, although the sources of inspiration differed (Hroch and A.D. Smith in the former, Gellner and Koselleck in the latter). Initially, a top-down vision predominated in which nation-building destroyed other identities. In the early 1990s this theoretical paradigm was challenged in the Netherlands. Research into nationhood from below emerged as case-centred micro-history on the local level, based on the everyday experience of individuals. Belgian historiography only followed a decade later due to its strong institutional focus. In the early 2000s both countries saw the rise of a history from below based on sources produced by ordinary people. Nevertheless, a one-sided top-down perspective often remains the subtext in current research.
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Tot voor kort was er onder historici een brede consensus dat de Belgische socialisten zich al voor de Eerste Wereldoorlog verregaand identificeerden met hun Belgische vaderland. Een van de oorzaken waar steevast naar verwezen werd, was de... more
Tot voor kort was er onder historici een brede consensus dat de Belgische socialisten zich al voor de Eerste Wereldoorlog verregaand identificeerden met hun Belgische vaderland. Een van de oorzaken waar steevast naar verwezen werd, was de geleidelijke democratisering van het staatsbestel die de Belgische Werkliedenpartij (BWP) toeliet zich gaandeweg in het systeem te integreren. Wat betreft nationale identiteit was er dus partijeenheid. Er waren weliswaar ideologische spanningen tussen de meer revolutionaire Waalse socialisten en hun reformistischer Brusselse en Vlaamse collega's, maar de meeste auteurs weten die conflicten aan de gebrekkige industriële ontwikkeling van Vlaanderen, niet aan uiteenlopende ‘nationale identificaties’. Als er al verschillen vastgesteld werden tussen de taalgroepen in de BWP, situeerde men die doorgaans in het enge kader van de taalwetgeving kort vóór 1914, op het moment dat de taalkwestie vrij werd in de socialistische parlementsfractie.
Deze bijdrage weerlegt deze visie. De sociaal-politieke integratie van de BWP leidde niet noodzakelijk tot een homogene identificatie met het Belgische vaderland. De communautaire tegenstellingen – niet alleen in de zin van taalspanningen maar ook van verschillen tussen etnische gemeenschappen – waren groter dan tot nu toe werd aangenomen.
Deze bijdrage weerlegt deze visie. De sociaal-politieke integratie van de BWP leidde niet noodzakelijk tot een homogene identificatie met het Belgische vaderland. De communautaire tegenstellingen – niet alleen in de zin van taalspanningen maar ook van verschillen tussen etnische gemeenschappen – waren groter dan tot nu toe werd aangenomen.
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De linguistic turn en de discoursanalyse hebben het historische onderzoek ongetwijfeld vernieuwd en uit zijn vastgeroeste methodes en idées reçues opgeschrikt. Maar de balans is niet eenduidig positief. Zoals elke vernieuwende beweging... more
De linguistic turn en de discoursanalyse hebben het historische onderzoek ongetwijfeld vernieuwd en uit zijn vastgeroeste methodes en idées reçues opgeschrikt. Maar de balans is niet eenduidig positief. Zoals elke vernieuwende beweging die vanuit de marge naar het centrum opschuift en in feite een nieuwe orthodoxie wordt, heeft de talige wending terechte kritiek te verwerken gekregen. Taal is niet alles. En hoewel het radicaalste postmodernisme, dat geen werkelijkheid erkent buiten de taal, duidelijk op zijn retour is, blijven verschillende beoefenaars van de discourse studies uitgaan van wankele assumpties. Al te vaak worden vertogen bestudeerd los van de vraag wat zij teweeg brachten of hoe populair ze waren. Een loutere discoursanalyse blijft vrijblijvend zolang we de maatschappelijke effecten ervan niet nagaan. En die impact kan je nooit afleiden uit dat discours an sich. Dat vergt een ander soort onderzoek. Je moet weg van de uitgegeven en makkelijk te raadplegen gedrukte bronnen, je moet op zoek gaan naar materiaal dat een inkijk kan bieden op de hersenspinsels van de mensen die met dat discours geconfronteerd werden. Dat impliceert tijdrovend archiefonderzoek, waarbij je aan de slag moet met disparate en discontinue bronnen die zich niet zo makkelijk laten verzamelen en lezen. Kortom, we mogen ons niet alleen concentreren op de productie van vertogen en louter tekst-immanente analyse. We moeten ook aandacht hebben voor de consumptie en vooral voor de actieve toe-eigening ervan.
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In 2005 vierde België zijn 175e verjaardag. De feestvreugde werd enigszins getemperd door de vrees dat het land zijn volgende jubileum in 2030 niet zou halen. Na de Tweede Wereldoorlog zijn de verschillende gemeenschappen van België... more
In 2005 vierde België zijn 175e verjaardag. De feestvreugde werd enigszins getemperd door de vrees dat het land zijn volgende jubileum in 2030 niet zou halen. Na de Tweede Wereldoorlog zijn de verschillende gemeenschappen van België immers sterk uit elkaar beginnen groeien. Vroeger was het beter. Althans, als we de literatuur mogen geloven, was er zeker vóór 1914 een hecht Belgisch gevoel en werden de nationale feesten enkel gecontesteerd door marginale groepen. Het protest van de radicaalste flaminganten bijvoorbeeld klonk zeer lauw. De socialisten van hun kant trokken van leer tegen de verheerlijking van het burgerlijke regime, maar hadden op zich niets tegen de viering van hun vaderland. Confrontatie met de bronnen leert ons echter iets anders. In werkelijkheid liep er een breuklijn door de Belgische Werkliedenpartij. De Gentse partijleden bleken immers heel wat wantrouwiger dan hun Franstalige kameraden.
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This volume tackles one of the basic questions in nationalism studies as formulated by Katherine Verdery: How do people become national? To examine how the nation entered ordinary people’s ‘insides’, this book focuses on their affective... more
This volume tackles one of the basic questions in nationalism studies as formulated by Katherine Verdery: How do people become national? To examine how the nation entered ordinary people’s ‘insides’, this book focuses on their affective lives. As such its objective is to bridge a double gap: the neglect of both emotions and the everyday realm in historical research on nationalism. On the one hand, Benedict Anderson’s question ‘why [do nations] command such profound emotional legitimacy’ , has long befuddled historians, who have been late-comers to the so-called 'affective turn'. On the other hand, historians have been taken to task for obsessing over the bells and whistles of nationalism and over-concentrating on the most articulate social groups. This collection of essays takes up the gauntlet. By analysing how nationalism harnesses, produces and feeds on emotions to pull ordinary people into its orbit, it refutes Anthony D. Smith’s critique that everyday nationalism research is necessarily imbued with an ‘ahistorical blocking presentism’. Using a variety of sources, methods and cases, ranging from Spain and the Netherlands during the age of Revolutions, nineteenth-century France and Belgium over interwar Italy, Germany and Romania, to war-torn Finland, and post-WWII Poland, this volume demonstrates that emotions are integral to understanding the everyday pull of nationalism on ordinary people.
Research Interests: Modern History, French History, Italian (European History), Romanian History, Polish History, and 14 moreHistory Of Emotions, Nationalism, Spanish History, Regionalism, Belgian History, Autobiographical Self-Representation, Nations and nationalism, Autobiographical Memory, Emotions, Dutch History, Finnish History, Occitan Language, Ego documents, and Personal Narratives
As I am writing this, early October 2019, it's been 5 months since the last general elections in Belgium. No new government is yet in sight. It feels like 2010-2011 all over again, when it took over a year and a half to form a national... more
As I am writing this, early October 2019, it's been 5 months since the last general elections in Belgium. No new government is yet in sight. It feels like 2010-2011 all over again, when it took over a year and a half to form a national government. This time, however, Belgium does not feel as the odd cousin in the Atlantic family of well-behaved functioning democracies. In the age of Trump and Brexit ideological polarization has made governing by compromise near impossible in many western liberal democracies. Suddenly, the Belgian experience no longer seems to be the exception to the rule. The discord between Belgium's Dutch-speakers and French-speakers now appears as just one manifestation of the many potential societal divides that need to be managed in a liberal democracy, rather than an idiosyncratic Belgian quirk. All over the globe the rise of populist ethno-nationalisms has opened up the cracks and fissures of the liberal-democratic status quo.
Research Interests: European History, Modern History, Nineteenth Century Studies, Working Classes, Popular Culture, and 15 moreRace and Ethnicity, Nationalism, Populism, Political History, National Identity, Nationalism And State Building, Language and Identity, Socialism, Belgian History, Nations and nationalism, Belgium, Ethnonationalism, Liberal Democracy, Donald Trump, and Brexit
The great continental empires of Russia, Austria-Hungary, Germany and the Ottomans all collapsed as a consequence of the First World War. In general, their downfall is seen as inevitable. These old-fashioned dynastic states were weaker... more
The great continental empires of Russia, Austria-Hungary, Germany and the Ottomans all collapsed as a consequence of the First World War. In general, their downfall is seen as inevitable. These old-fashioned dynastic states were weaker than the more modern nation-states of Great Britain, France and the United States. Because of their multi-ethnic nature the former were supposedly less cohesive. Their dissolution into new, apparently more unified nation-states was considered to be a ‘natural’ outcome of the war. Most historians have even argued that the rise of national movements had already seriously weakened the legitimacy of these ‘prisons of peoples’ before the war. As one of the long-standing centrifugal forces in each of these empires, ethno-nationalist competition inescapably led to ethno-nationalist fragmentation and the victory of Wilsonian self-determination after the war. We use the term ‘Wilsonian’ in its metaphorical sense to refer to the breakthrough of the language of national self-determination after the First World War, knowing full well that president Woodrow Wilson never used the phrase ‘national self-determination’ in his Fourteen Points address of 8 January 1918, and that his ideal of self-government did not originally have an ethno-nationalist political intent. This point of view dovetailed with the modernist paradigm in nationalism research. Authors like Ernest Gellner, Eugen Weber and Miroslav Hroch presented the rise of nationalism as a direct consequence of the modernization process. In their narrative the replacement of dynastic empires by nation-states was almost inevitable. From the 1990s on this rather finalistic and top-down interpretation was questioned by scholars taking a regional or local approach. The articles in this dossier further develop this critique. They evaluate the status of the First World War as the breakthrough moment of Wilsonian self-determination within the multi-ethnic states and empires in Europe and demonstrate how the specific developments of war and revolution produced particular understandings of the general idea of self-determination. The Wilsonian discourse did spill onto the international scene in 1918 when the destruction of Austria-Hungary generally became accepted as an Allied post-war goal and movements world-wide adopted self-determination as a goal and standard. This dossier, however demonstrates, that different kinds of actors used Wilson’s words for their many purposes, such that one cannot speak of a coherent and meaningful Wilsonian moment.
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PoHis - Centrum voor Politieke Geschiedenis nodigt u uit op de voorstelling van het nieuwe boek van Maarten Van Ginderachter: The Everyday Nationalism of Workers. A social history of Belgium, uitgegeven door Stanford University Press.... more
PoHis - Centrum voor Politieke Geschiedenis nodigt u uit op de voorstelling van het nieuwe boek van Maarten Van Ginderachter: The Everyday Nationalism of Workers. A social history of Belgium, uitgegeven door Stanford University Press.
Wanneer? Op maandag 30 september 2019 om 19.00 uur.
Waar? Foyer van Het Brantijser, Sint-Jacobsmarkt 13 (2000 Antwerpen)
Programma
De jongste verkiezingen hebben het andermaal duidelijk gemaakt: België is ten dode opgeschreven. En dat was het al in 1830. Van bij zijn ontstaan was het land een oppervlakkig amalgaam van Vlamingen en Walen. Althans, dat is vandaag de communis opinio. Heel wat historici hebben echter betoogd dat het negentiende-eeuwse België in de Europese avant-garde zat om, als het erop aankwam, overtuigde patriotten van zijn burgers te maken.
In zijn nieuwe boek The Everyday Nationalism of Workers. A social history of Belgium weerlegt Maarten van Ginderachter beide argumenten. Was België gedoemd te falen? Neen, maar het hyperliberale beleid van de jonge Belgische staat maakte de zaken er niet eenvoudiger op. Was het taalverschil dan gedoemd om een splijtzwam te worden? Evenmin. Het was de schok van de Eerste Wereldoorlog die de communautaire demonen opriep - maar niet om de redenen die we denken.
Programma
19.00 u.: Inleiding door prof. dr. Henk De Smaele, voorzitter PoHis-Centrum voor Politieke Geschiedenis, Universiteit Antwerpen
19.15 - 20.15 u.: Panelgesprek gemodereerd door Marc Reynebeau (De Standaard), met:
Herman Van Goethem, rector Universiteit Antwerpen en lid van het PoHis-Centrum voor Politieke Geschiedenis, Universiteit Antwerpen
Kevin Absillis, Departement Letterkunde, Universiteit Antwerpen
Gita Deneckere, Universiteit Gent
Maarten Van Ginderachter, auteur en lid van het PoHis-Centrum voor Politieke Geschiedenis, Universiteit Antwerpen
20.15 - 20.30u.: Afsluitend woord door de auteur
20.30 u.: Receptie, met mogelijkheid tot aankoop van het boek
Inschrijven: https://www.uantwerpen.be/nl/overuantwerpen/faculteiten/faculteit-letteren-en-wijsbegeerte/onderzoek-en-valorisatie/boekvoorstelling/
Wanneer? Op maandag 30 september 2019 om 19.00 uur.
Waar? Foyer van Het Brantijser, Sint-Jacobsmarkt 13 (2000 Antwerpen)
Programma
De jongste verkiezingen hebben het andermaal duidelijk gemaakt: België is ten dode opgeschreven. En dat was het al in 1830. Van bij zijn ontstaan was het land een oppervlakkig amalgaam van Vlamingen en Walen. Althans, dat is vandaag de communis opinio. Heel wat historici hebben echter betoogd dat het negentiende-eeuwse België in de Europese avant-garde zat om, als het erop aankwam, overtuigde patriotten van zijn burgers te maken.
In zijn nieuwe boek The Everyday Nationalism of Workers. A social history of Belgium weerlegt Maarten van Ginderachter beide argumenten. Was België gedoemd te falen? Neen, maar het hyperliberale beleid van de jonge Belgische staat maakte de zaken er niet eenvoudiger op. Was het taalverschil dan gedoemd om een splijtzwam te worden? Evenmin. Het was de schok van de Eerste Wereldoorlog die de communautaire demonen opriep - maar niet om de redenen die we denken.
Programma
19.00 u.: Inleiding door prof. dr. Henk De Smaele, voorzitter PoHis-Centrum voor Politieke Geschiedenis, Universiteit Antwerpen
19.15 - 20.15 u.: Panelgesprek gemodereerd door Marc Reynebeau (De Standaard), met:
Herman Van Goethem, rector Universiteit Antwerpen en lid van het PoHis-Centrum voor Politieke Geschiedenis, Universiteit Antwerpen
Kevin Absillis, Departement Letterkunde, Universiteit Antwerpen
Gita Deneckere, Universiteit Gent
Maarten Van Ginderachter, auteur en lid van het PoHis-Centrum voor Politieke Geschiedenis, Universiteit Antwerpen
20.15 - 20.30u.: Afsluitend woord door de auteur
20.30 u.: Receptie, met mogelijkheid tot aankoop van het boek
Inschrijven: https://www.uantwerpen.be/nl/overuantwerpen/faculteiten/faculteit-letteren-en-wijsbegeerte/onderzoek-en-valorisatie/boekvoorstelling/
Research Interests: European History, Cultural History, Nineteenth Century Studies, Working Classes, Popular Culture, and 13 moreNationalism, Central European history, Habsburg Studies, Political History, National Identity, Nationalism And State Building, Language and Identity, Social History, Socialism, Ethnicity, Belgian History, Nations and nationalism, and Belgium
Advance praise by John Breuilly (LSE): "The relationships of workers and the modern labor movement to social categories such as nationality, ethnicity, class, and religion are complex and poorly understood, usually treated separately... more
Advance praise by John Breuilly (LSE):
"The relationships of workers and the modern labor movement to social categories such as nationality, ethnicity, class, and religion are complex and poorly understood, usually treated separately from everyday experiences. Drawing on a wide range of sources, including a unique set of 'proletarian tweets,' this superb book both illuminates the Belgian case and provides a model for future research."
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Summary
Belgium has always been an accident waiting to happen. Merely held together by the monarchy, chocolate and beer, the country is a superficial amalgam of Dutch-speaking Flanders and French-speaking Wallonia. That, at least, is a popular contemporary belief. Historians by contrast have argued that nineteenth-century Belgium was the paragon of European modernity. Densely populated and urbanized, and covered by a busy transport network, it was the first industrialized country on the continent. It was also one of the earliest to turn its citizenry into a nation.
The Everyday Nationalism of Workers refutes both narratives. Examining the rank-and-file of the socialist Belgian Workers Party during the fin de siècle (ca. 1880-First World War), this book reveals the limits of nation-building from above and the potential of agency from below. Workers were bombarded with patriotic propaganda. Nationalism was ‘out there’, enshrined in institutions like the school, the army and the monarchy. But did it work? This study shows that Belgium’s working classes were not uniformly nationalized. Neither, however, was the ethnic-linguistic divide ineluctable. Rather than an atavism, ethnicity was a modern reaction to late nineteenth-century suffrage reform and the disruption of the First World War.
With its rich source base, including a fascinating late nineteenth-century precursor of Twitter, this book is the first history of nationalism structurally to give voice to ordinary people. By comparing Imperial Austria to Belgium, it offers an unexpected bridge between ‘Eastern’ and ‘Western’ studies of European nationalism and sheds new light on the fate of multilingual societies in the age of mass politics.
"The relationships of workers and the modern labor movement to social categories such as nationality, ethnicity, class, and religion are complex and poorly understood, usually treated separately from everyday experiences. Drawing on a wide range of sources, including a unique set of 'proletarian tweets,' this superb book both illuminates the Belgian case and provides a model for future research."
.
Summary
Belgium has always been an accident waiting to happen. Merely held together by the monarchy, chocolate and beer, the country is a superficial amalgam of Dutch-speaking Flanders and French-speaking Wallonia. That, at least, is a popular contemporary belief. Historians by contrast have argued that nineteenth-century Belgium was the paragon of European modernity. Densely populated and urbanized, and covered by a busy transport network, it was the first industrialized country on the continent. It was also one of the earliest to turn its citizenry into a nation.
The Everyday Nationalism of Workers refutes both narratives. Examining the rank-and-file of the socialist Belgian Workers Party during the fin de siècle (ca. 1880-First World War), this book reveals the limits of nation-building from above and the potential of agency from below. Workers were bombarded with patriotic propaganda. Nationalism was ‘out there’, enshrined in institutions like the school, the army and the monarchy. But did it work? This study shows that Belgium’s working classes were not uniformly nationalized. Neither, however, was the ethnic-linguistic divide ineluctable. Rather than an atavism, ethnicity was a modern reaction to late nineteenth-century suffrage reform and the disruption of the First World War.
With its rich source base, including a fascinating late nineteenth-century precursor of Twitter, this book is the first history of nationalism structurally to give voice to ordinary people. By comparing Imperial Austria to Belgium, it offers an unexpected bridge between ‘Eastern’ and ‘Western’ studies of European nationalism and sheds new light on the fate of multilingual societies in the age of mass politics.