Writing National Histories: Western Europe Since 1800

by Stefan Berger (Editor), Mark Donovan (Editor), Kevin Passmore (Editor)

This book examines comparatively how the writing of history by individuals and groups, historians, politicians and journalists has been used to "legitimate" the nation-state agianst socialist, communist and catholic internationalism in the modern era. Covering the whole of Western Europe, the book includes discussion
* history as legitimation in post-revolutionary France
* unity and confederation in the Italian Risorgimento
* German historians as critics of Prussian conservatism
* right-wing history writing in France between the wars
* British historiography from Macauley to Trevelyan
* the search for national identity in the reunified Germany.

330 pages, Hardcover

First published December 3, 1998

About the author

Stefan Berger is a Professor of Social History at the Ruhr University Bochum. He specializes in nationalism and national identity studies, historiography and historical theory, comparative labour studies, and the history of industrial heritage.