Myths and Nationhood

Description

The stormy end of the twentieth century, both in Europe and elsewhere, has once again confirmed what the rest of the century demonstrated in ample measure: that the beliefs a people holds about its shared fate represent one of the fundamental driving forces of modern society. National myths are crucial to understanding the world we live in. Yet strangely, although they are constantly being evoked, little concerted work has been done on the nature and functions of myths concerning nationhood. For that reason, during 1995–6 the History and Social Science Departments of the School of Slavonic and East European Studies jointly organized a seminar series to investigate the subject. The sessions were exceptionally well attended and the discussions they generated extremely stimulating and revealing. We soon found ourselves wandering far beyond Central and Eastern Europe, and accepted that as a positive advantage. We also found — contrary to what many of us had expected — that democratic ‘civil’ societies appeared to rely on myths just as much as authoritarian ‘ethnic’ ones. In the mean time the School was moving towards the establishment of a Centre for the Study of Nationalism in Europe, and it was decided that its first venture should be the running of a two-day international conference on ‘Myths and Nationhood’. This was held in October 1996, and the present volume makes available, in revised and updated form, the papers delivered then.