4 ms·

It seems a pretty big omission in a discussion of the US and nationhood to not mention the concept of civic nationalism, as the US is often considered the main

It seems a pretty big omission in a discussion of the US and nationhood to not mention the concept of civic nationalism, as the US is often considered the main example of civic nationalism. If a nation is an imagined community based on a myth of commonality, that myth doesn't have to be based on just biological natality (that's the etymology of "nation", but it's never been the whole meaning - definitions of nations have always appealed to a common heritage and tradition that is broader than just ancestry). The common myth can be one of values or a shared non-biological origin; indeed the belief that most Americans are descended from immigrants is an important part of the national mythology of the US. This is civic nationalism (and the idea of a nation as necessarily about common descent is, by contrast, referred to as "ethnic nationalism").

afthonos 5y ago
The concept is mentioned. The author doesn’t call it that, but the last part of the article discusses it.
notacoward 5y ago
It should be pretty clear from the author's discussion of etymology and usage that "civic nationalism" is an oxymoron.
- zhdc1 5y ago
  And yet, it's very possible that the author (a historian, not a political scientist) is completely wrong. Civic nationalism is very much considered to be a legitimate form of nationalism. And the author's concept of a nation as a shared ethnic background in historical perpetuity completely ignores why the concept of the "nation state" became a thing in the first place - 19th century European nationalists needed an ideology to organize highly diverse (linguistically, religiously, as well as ethnically) populations under a single administration. It´s worth keeping in mind that nationalism also emerged as a reaction to the success of the United States, and part of the reason for it's popularity was that it served to counteract the Enlightenment-based concept of principles-based government (political naturalism), which was seen as one of the main causes for the French revolution (see Lafayette's Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen and Paine's Rights of Man).

afthonos 5y ago

The concept is mentioned. The author doesn’t call it that, but the last part of the article discusses it.

notacoward 5y ago

It should be pretty clear from the author's discussion of etymology and usage that "civic nationalism" is an oxymoron.

zhdc1 5y ago
And yet, it's very possible that the author (a historian, not a political scientist) is completely wrong. Civic nationalism is very much considered to be a legitimate form of nationalism. And the author's concept of a nation as a shared ethnic background in historical perpetuity completely ignores why the concept of the "nation state" became a thing in the first place - 19th century European nationalists needed an ideology to organize highly diverse (linguistically, religiously, as well as ethnically) populations under a single administration. It´s worth keeping in mind that nationalism also emerged as a reaction to the success of the United States, and part of the reason for it's popularity was that it served to counteract the Enlightenment-based concept of principles-based government (political naturalism), which was seen as one of the main causes for the French revolution (see Lafayette's Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen and Paine's Rights of Man).