Nationalizing Empires

The essays in Nationalizing Empires challenge the dichotomy between empire and nation state that for decades has dominated historiography. The authors center their attention on nation-building in the imperial core and maintain that the nineteenth century, rather than the age of nation-states, was the age of empires and nationalism. They identify a number of instances where nation building projects in the imperial metropolis aimed at the preservation and extension of empires rather than at their dissolution or the transformation of entire empires into nation states. Such observations have until recently largely escaped theoretical reflection. This collection of essays by outstanding scholars includes case studies of Europe-based empires, whether those of Bourbon Spain, Napoleonic France, Italy, Great Britain, Oldenburg Denmark, Germany, Habsburg Austro-Hungary, Late-Ottoman Turkey or Romanov Russia. While some of the contributions include earlier periods, the primary focus is on the 19th and early 20th centuries.