Born in its modern sense during the French Revolution, nationalism is a comparatively recent occurrence. Despite its short history, nationalism is extremely important in forming the bonds that hold modern nations together. Today it operates alongside the legal structure and supplements the formal institutions of society in providing much of the cohesiveness and order necessary for the existence of the modern nation-state. In the same instant, many aspects unique to nationalism, or nationalistic sentiment, bear an instinctive and archaic value that maintains its worth as a necessary instrument of human existence. Its primordial qualities fulfill basic socio-biological functions of self-definition and the need for identity. Consequently, a myriad of factors coexist in a multi-dimensional and dynamic realm to characterize nationalism as a modern experience intertwined with the political aspects of the nation-state. In his book, National Identity, distinguished author and sociologist Anthony D. Smith offers an historic account of national identity applied to the contemporary era. He focuses on national identity as a collective cultural phenomenon to explain the modern appeal to nationalism as a worldwide political force.
Smith is Professor Emeritus of Nationalism and Ethnicity at the London School of Economics and is considered to be one of the founders of the interdisciplinary field of nationalism studies. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in Classics and Philosophy at Oxford University and his Master's degree and Doctorate in Sociology at the London School of Economics. He is a student of the prominent anthropologist Ernest Gellner.
Anthony Smith’s best-known contributions to the field include his distinctions between civic and ethnic types of nations and nationalisms and the idea that all nations have dominant “ethnic cores.” His stance on nationalistic theory can be distinguished by his principle of “ethno-nationalism.” It encompasses a synthesis of modern and...