Dublin Seminars

May 22 - 27, 2023

Nationalism, Nation-Building, and the Decline of Empires

READING LIST

1. ANDERSON, BENEDICT RICHARD O’GORMAN. Imagined Communities:

Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. London : Verso, 1983, Excerpt

2. BARKEY, KAREN. “Empire and Toleration: A Comparative Sociology of Toleration

Within Empire.” in Boundaries of Toleration. Columbia University Press: New York,
2014, pp. 203–232.

3. DELANTY, GERARD. “Beyond the Nation-State: National Identity and Citizenship in a

Multicultural Society - A Response to Rex”, Sociological Research Online, vol. 1, no. 3,
1996.

4. GETACHEW, ADOM. “Universalism After the Post-colonial Turn: Interpreting the

Haitian Revolution.” Political Theory, vol. 44, no. 6, 2016, pp. 821–845.

5. GREENFELD, LIAH. “The Globalization of Nationalism and the Future of the

Nation-State.” International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society, vol. 24, no. 1/2,
2011, pp. 5–9.

6. HOBSBAWM, ERIC. Nations and Nationalism Since 1780: Programme, Myth, Reality.
1990, dx.doi.org/10.1017/ccol0521439612.

7. MCCAFFREY, LAWRENCE J. “Irish Nationalism and Irish Catholicism: A Study in

Cultural Identity.” Church History, Vol. 42, No. 4, Dec. 1973, pp. 524-534.

8. REX, JOHN. “National Identity in the Democratic Multicultural State.” Sociological

Research Online, vol. 1, no. 2, 1996.
9. STEVENS, DAVID. “Nationalism as Religion.” Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review,
Vol. 86, No. 343, Autumn 1997, pp. 248-258.

10. TILLY, CHARLES. “States and Nationalism in Europe 1492-1992.” Theory and Society,
vol. 23, no. 1, 1994, pp. 131–146.

Discussion Questions

● How have different cultural, linguistic, ethnic, religious differences been managed
during the different phases of empires, with particular interest in the Habsburg and
the Ottoman cases? How do they differ from the Russian Soviet case, during and after
their decline and at their end?
● Can the concept of “Liberal Nationalism” really find an application in the European
post-imperial context?
● How do former colonies and new states perceive themselves and create national
identity after colonization? How can this be harnessed to create a stronger (i.e.
corruption-proof, solid democracy) Ukraine after the war.
● Isaiah Berlin before ’89: “I can already see the list of the wars that will come out
from the end of the Soviet Union.” A reality that he happened to call “the Soviet
Babel”. Was this epilogue unavoidable?
● How is this process defining and redefining new nations, new states (e.g. Italy two
centuries ago, Greece and other cases in the 19th and 20th centuries?
● What are the consequences of decline and end of empires on the very identity of the
successor states and nations, like Austria, Turkey and Russia today? Are illiberal
outcomes more likely than in other countries that have never led an empire?
● Is the Russian invasion of Ukraine the consequence of a “colonizing” imperial
vision? What is the connection with the legacy of the Soviet Union and Russian
history?
● Can this situation be compared with major cases of imperial decline and collapse?