Nation

This chapter historicises the concept of national identity. It argues that 'national identity' is unique among group identities because it can exist only in a world that has come to be politically organised as an ensemble of nation-states whose functions include the cultivation of national identities. The chapter narrates briefly how such a world system came about, before reviewing some important sociological theories of 'nation' that sensitise us to the possible variety of political alignments of a sense of national identity.