Nationalism and Global History

Catalog description

Nationalism is a major political, social, and cultural phenomenon of the modern world. This course explores the emergence and circulation of ideas of nationhood and national belonging in diverse yet interlinked regions, including present day Latin America and the Caribbean, South Asia and South-East Asia, and Europe. The course opens with a set of general readings that help establish the larger historical and analytical issues at stake. The central questions and themes of the course include: How did ideas of nationhood and national belonging emerge within and across regions? What was the relation between empire and nation? Did nationalist movements alter the meaning and significance of collective identities based on religion, gender, or class? How were concepts of nation, territory, and economy placed together in different nationalist movements? Do contemporary processes of global economic change signal the fading of nationalisms and nation-states?