num_pages: 320
description: Using eighteenth-century France as a case study, David Bell offers an important new argument about the origins of nationalism. Before the eighteenth century, the very idea of nation-building―a central component of nationalism―did not exist. During this period, leading French intellectual and political figures came to see perfect national unity as a critical priority, and so sought ways to endow all French people with the same language, laws, customs, and values. The period thus gave rise to the first large-scale nationalist program in history.
language: English
title: The Cult of the Nation in France: Inventing Nationalism, 1680–1800
titlecomplete: The Cult of the Nation in France: Inventing Nationalism, 1680–1800
genres: Politics, France, History, Nonfiction, Sociology
ratings_count: 50
awards: awardedAt: 1009872000000
name: Leo Gershoy Award
publisher: Harvard University Press