In six pages this paper discusses 'nation' and its many definitions and discusses in this Oxford reader text. Eight sources are cited in the bibliography.
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evolved greatly over the past several centuries in light of the American and French Revolutions which looked to nationalism "as the manifestation of modern humanitys most essential aspirations: autonomy, unity,
and identity" (Oxford, 2003). Nationalism has remained a controversial and important debate in regards to definition throughout the past two hundred years and the text "Nationalism" tries to covers not
only the ideal of nationalism but also some terms and ideals which offer slightly different perspectives, such as the concepts of nation, states, ethnic groups, which are those most often
linked with nationalism and all that it implies. In searching for a definition of "nation" in the first section of the text, Hutchinson and Smith refer to such influential political
writers such as Ernest Renan, Joseph Stalin, Max Weber, Karl W. Deutsch, and anthropologist Clifford Geertz among others to provide different perspectives from the 19th century into modern day. Ernest
Renan in the 1880s wrote his essay "Quest-ce quune nation?" (What is a Nation?) and rejects the many statist concepts advocated in that he believed the concept of a nation
"as a form of morality" as "it is a solidarity sustained by a distinctive historical consciousness" and "is a daily plebiscite" (Hutchinson and Smith, 1995, p. 15). For Stalin however,
he believed that nations only come into existence when "several elements have come together, especially economic life, language and territory". Stalin finds that nations have a mix of objective and
subjective elements which make them different from the extremes such as races and tribe on one side and imperial states on the other. It is only when the various elements
come together than a nation is formed and differentiates it from either extreme which existed before (Hutchinson and Smith, 1995). Max Weber also includes various elements within his concept of