This classic work on nationalism, originally published thirty years ago and now reissued with a new preface by the author, provides excellent historical and political background to the profusion of recent nationalist movements in Eastern Europe. Miroslav Hroch develops and demonstrates empirically the concept of a three-stage process of nationalist mobilization: (1) heightened cultural awareness of national distinctiveness among intellectuals and literati, (2) a concept of nationalism as a political program, and (3) mass mobilization on behalf of this doctrine. Hroch shows how the character of a state's nationalism is shaped by the timing of each of these phases in relation to other social transformations, especially economic changes.
Amid all the speculation and theorizing about the nationalist currents in contemporary Eastern Europe (as well as in other regions), Hroch's empirically based study helps counter the impulse toward easy and spectacular generalizations and provides sound footing for an informed approach to the topic.