Introduction

1. God's Firstborn: England

Reflection of the National Consciousness in Discourse and Sentiment

The New Aristocracy, the New Monarchy, and the Protestant Reformation

The English Bible, the Bloody Regiment of Queen Mary, and the Burning Matter of Dignity

England as God's Peculiar People, and the Token of His Love

The Sound of Their Voices

The Changing Position of the Crown and Religion in the National Consciousness

A Land of Experimental Knowledge

2. The Three Identities of France

I. The Development of Pre-National French Identity

France--a Church, and the Faith of the "Fleur de Lys"

Heresy and Its Child

The King and His State

II. The Social Bases of the Nationalization of French Identity and the Character of the Nascent National Consciousness

Turns of the Social Wheel: The Plight of the French Aristocracy

The Perilous Escape: Redefinition and Reorganization of the Noblesse

The Birth of the French Nation

Nation, the Supreme Being

Competition with England and Ressentiment

A Note on Non-Elite Nationalism

3. The Scythian Rome: Russia

Perestroika in the Eighteenth Century

The Crisis of the Nobility

The West and Ressentiment

The Laying of the Foundations

Transvaluation of Values: The Crystallization of the Matrix of Russian Nationalism

The Two-Headed Eagle

4. The Final Solution of Infinite Longing: Germany

I. The Setting

The Conception and Miscarriage of Nationalism in the Sixteenth Century

The Early Evolution of the Concept of the State

The Insouciance of German Nobility prior to the Nineteenth Century

Bildungsbürgertum: The Dangerous Class

II. The Birth of the Spirit: The Preparation of the Mold for the German National Consciousness

Aufklärung

Pietism

Romanticism

III. The Materialization of the Spirit

The Impact of the French Revolution

The Birth of German Nationalism

The Finishing Touch: Ressentiment

The Twin Blossoms of the Blue Flower

5. In Pursuit of the Ideal Nation: The Unfolding of Nationality in America

America as a New England

The Separation

A Union Begun by Necessity

The Tug-of-War: The Persisting Threat of Secession and the Development of National Unity

Inconsistencies and Tensions

The Trial and Completion of American Nationality

Afterword

Notes

Index

Liah Greenfeld is University Professor and Professor of Political Science and Sociology, Boston University.

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