The Nation in History

The Nation in History describes the main historiographical controversies about the place of the nation in history, and presents in greater detail the advantages of the ethnic-symbolic approach, of which Smith is one of the prominent representatives.

For thirty years and more, Anthony Smith has been considered one of the central theorists in the study of nationalism. One by one, he published an impressive series of books that are considered landmarks in understanding the phenomenon of nations and ethnicities. His research work excels both in conceptual sharpness and theoretical sophistication as well as in extensive historical knowledge and understanding. His writing is characterized by a consistent search for the connection between pre-modern ethnicity and the nationalism that came after it, and a tireless pursuit of a unifying theory or an agreed-upon paradigm that would encompass most of the problems and issues included in nationalism. In his book The Nation in History, some of his guiding ideas on these topics matured and reached the point of formation.