The Identity of Nations

What is national identity? What are the main challenges posed to national identity by the strengthening of regional identities and the growth of cultural diversity? How is right-wing nationalism connected to the desire to preserve a traditional image of national identity? Can we forge a new kind of national identity that responds to the challenges of globalization and other deep-seated changes?

In this important new book, Montserrat Guibernau answers these and other compelling questions about the future of national identity. For Guibernau, the nation-states traditional project to unify its otherwise diverse population by generating a shared sense of national identity among them was always contested, and was accomplished with various degrees of success in Europe and North America.

Such processes involved the cultural and linguistic homogenization of an otherwise diverse citizenry and were pursued by different means according to the specific contexts within which they were applied. At present, the impact of strong structural socio-political and economic transformations has resulted in greater challenges being posed to the idea that all citizens of a state should share a homogeneous national identity.

Diversity is increasing, and plans for further European integration contain the potential to generate significant tensions, casting greater doubt on the classical concept of national identity.

As a result, we are faced with a set of new dilemmas concerning the way in which national identity is constructed and defined. The book offers a theoretical as well as a comparative approach, with case studies involving Austria, Britain, Canada and Spain, as well as the European Union and the United States of America.

The Identity of Nations will be essential reading for advanced students and professional scholars in sociology, politics and international relations.

Detailed Contents vi

Acknowledgements ix

Introduction 1

1 What is National Identity? 9

2 National Identity, Devolution and Secession 33

3 The Impact of Migration on National Identity 58

4 On European Identity 89

5 Rethinking American Identity 119

6 Reactions to the End of ‘Pure’ National Identities 138

7 National Identity versus Cosmopolitan Identity 159

Conclusion 189

Notes 197

References and Bibliography 210

Index 226

"While processes that challenge national identities in today's apparently global world are well detected and exemplified, Guibernau warns us that we are still far from understanding the internal dynamics of renegotiations of the meaning of these identities. Clear definitions, rich sources of data and a careful selection of relevant case studies all make this volume a good starting point for such investigation."
—Political Studies Review

"Guibernau paints a broad panorama of national identities and their political mobilization in North America and Western Europe and argues for a "cosmopolitan nationalism" that reconciles moral universalism with a sense of national belonging. The Identity of Nations is an important and thoughtful contribution to current debates on multiculturalism, the rise of the radical right and the relation between national, European and global identities."
—Rainer Bauböck, European University Institute, Florence

"Montserrat Guibernau brings together a vast experience of the study of nationalism and national identity. Since her original work on Nations without States, based upon her experience of her native Catalonia, she has gone on to study these topics in a variety of situations, especially in the United Kingdom and Canada. This book brings together her perceptive conclusions."
—John Rex, University of Warwick

"The Identity of Nations is a trenchant analysis of the nature of national identity and contemporary challenges to its continued primacy by a scholar with impeccable credentials."
—Walker Connor, Middlebury College

Montserrat Guibernau is Professor of Politics at Queen Mary, University of London.