The cult of the nation in France
Subtitle: inventing nationalism, 1680-1800
By: David A. Bell.
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Published: 2001
Place of publication: Cambridge, Mass
Language: eng
Number of pages: 304
Subjects: Nationalism -- France -- History.; French language -- Political aspects.; National characteristics, French.; France -- Politics and government -- 17th century.; France -- Politics and government -- 18th century.
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, customes, and values.

The period thus gave rise to the first large-scale nationalist program in history."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.

6