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1 This is a thorough re-analysis of both nationalism and nations. It challenges the current 'modernist' orthodoxies of such writers as Eric Hobsbawm, Benedict Anderson and Ernest Gellner, and it offers a systematic critique of Hobsbawm's best-selling Nations and nationalism since ij8o. In opposition to books which limit nations and nationalism to the eighteenth century and after, as an aspect of'modernisation', Professor Hastings argues for a medieval origin to both, dependent upon biblical religion and the development of vernacular literatures. While theorists of nationhood have paid mostly scant attention to England, the development of the nation-state is seen here as central to the subject, but the analysis is carried forward to embrace many other examples, including Ireland, the South Slavs and modern Africa, before concluding with an overview of the impact of religion, contrasting Islam with Christianity.

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3 The 1996 Wiles Lectures given at The Queen's University of Belfast THE CONSTRUCTION OF NATIONHOOD

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5 THE CONSTRUCTION OF NATIONHOOD ETHNICITY, RELIGION AND NATIONALISM ADRIAN HASTINGS University of Leeds CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS

6 cambridge university press Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo, Delhi, Tokyo, Mexico City Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 8RU, UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York Information on this title: / Cambridge University Press 1997 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 1997 Seventh printing 2007 A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data Hastings, Adrian. The construction of nationhood: ethnicity, religion and nationalism /. p. cm. - (The Wiles lectures given at the Queen s University of Belfast) Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn hardback - isbn paperback 1. Nationalism - History. 2. Nationalism - Religiuous aspects. 3. Hobsbawn, E. J. (Eric J.), Nations and nationalism since i. Title. ii. Series: Wiles lectures. jc311.h dc cip isbn Hardback isbn Paperback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. Information regarding prices, travel timetables, and other factual information given in this work is correct at the time of first printing but Cambridge University Press does not guarantee the accuracy of such information thereafter.

7 For Janet Boyd

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9 Contents Preface page xi 1 The nation and nationalism i 2 England as prototype 35 3 England's western neighbours 66 4 Western Europe 96 5 The South Slavs Some African case studies Ethnicity further considered Religion further considered 185 Notes 210 Index 228 IX

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11 Preface This book is based on the Wiles Lectures which I had the honour to give at The Queen's University of Belfast in May I have first to thank the Vice-Chancellor and the Wiles Trustees, in particular Professor David Hempton, head of the Queen's School of History, Professor Terence Ranger, Professor Ian Kershaw and Trevor Boyd for the invitation to deliver them. It is the particular attraction of the Wiles Lectures that a group of distinguished historians from other universities are invited to Belfast for the week in which they are given, to discuss each lecture after dinner that evening with the Trustees and selected members of Queen's academic staff. The guests for 1996 were Professor Tom Bartlett, Dr Kim Knott, Professor Hugh McLeod, Professor John Peel, Dr Eamon Duffy, Dr Scott Thomas, Professor Sean Connolly and Professor Mark Noll. Discussing nationalism in Belfast, especially if one is an Englishman, might be compared, I remarked at the beginning of my second lecture, with the situation of Daniel in the den of lions, but, as I added, the point of the Daniel story was that the lions proved wonderfully friendly and so did the academics of Belfast. Their discussion was no less stimulating for that. I am most grateful to Dr Ian Green and Professor Peel for subsequently letting me read chapters from forthcoming works. I must also express my most sincere thanks for comments, advice and information provided by Branka Magas, Noel Malcolm, Tudor Griffiths, Brigid Allen, Lesley Johnson, Frank Felsenstein and Martin Butler. I owe a very great deal to Ann, my wife, for listening over the preceding months, suppertime after suppertime, to my rehearsing the developing argument of the lectures. Ingrid Lawrie, once again, has typed and retyped versions of both lectures and book with a XI

12 PREFACE precision, a promptitude and an eye for small mistakes which make it her book as well as mine. Janet Boyd established the Wiles Lectures forty years ago in memory of her father, Thomas Shires Wiles of Albany, New York, n inventor of genius, to whom we owe the washing machine. They ave ever since proved a wonderful enrichment of the culture both of Belfast and of the world. It is a huge privilege to have been brought into the truly ecumenical circle created by this annual series ever since the first were given by Herbert Butterfield in 1954 on Man and his Past. If the frontiers of the present book may seem absurdly wide to the eye of the modern specialist historian, I can only plead both that the subject chosen requires this sort of range of comparison across centuries and continents, and that the Wiles Lectures have as an essential purpose the discussion of broad issues relating to the general history of civilisation. Butterfield dedicated Man and his Past to Janet Boyd. Since then she has attended every series and for me it added greatly to the occasion to see her, at each lecture, now in her nineties, listening attentively in the front row. Seldom can a patron of modern scholarship have found so continuously creative a manner of furthering the cause, yet the Wiles Lectures are only one of many ways in which her Quaker conscience has contributed to the furtherance of understanding and peace. It is a very great pleasure and honour to be able to dedicate this book to Janet Boyd. Most of what is here printed was written before the lectures were given, though only parts could be presented in the time. The whole has since been thoroughly revised. Chapter 1 represents the core of Lecture 1; chapters 2 and 3, Lecture 2; chapters 6 and 7, Lecture 3; and chapter 8, Lecture 4. Only when the revision was finally complete did Lesley Johnson draw my attention to the recent work of Thorlac Turville-Petre, England the Nation: Language, Literature and National Identity, (Clarendon Press, 1996), whose profound and subtle learning supports the main thrust of the argument of chapters 1 and 2. While I have altered nothing in my own text, I am very happy to signal here the appearance of this important book. Leeds December 1996 Xll