The historiographic renovation on the nation in the late 20th century and the case of Catalonia

• Jordi Casassas ^[1]
  1. [1] Universitat de Barcelona

     Universitat de Barcelona

     Barcelona, España

     
• Localización: Catalan Historical Review, ISSN-e 2013-4088, Nº. 10, 2017, págs. 93-104
• Idioma: inglés
• DOI: 10.2436/20.1000.01.134
• Enlaces
  • Texto completo
• Resumen

  • This article considers the need, when studying nationalism, to combine the analysis of the particular case with the status of the issue in the analysis of the generic nation/nationalism which brings us to the historical time when the study is being conducted. What stands out currently is the importance of the historiographic renovation spearheaded by a group of historians, sociologists, anthropologists and political scientists in the first half of the 1980s. And because of his popularity, E. Hobsbawm’s contribution particularly stands out. In a complementary fashion, it also advances a hypothesis on the reasons behind this historiographic renovation. The last part of the article focuses on determining the effects this renovation had on analyses of Catalanism.

• Referencias bibliográficas
  • The state of the issue can be read in Josep Termes and Jordi Casassas (dir.). El nacionalisme com a ideologia. Proa, Barcelona 1995, “Temes...
  • I have referred to the Italian edition: Johan Huizinga. La scienza storica: il suo valore, la sua attualità. Res Gestae, Milan 2013.
  • We can find one example in the way political science regarded nationalism in the late 19th century, rendering it obsolete as a creative form...
  • Among these debates, and because of its density, we shall spotlight the one between Roberto Vivarelli — “Il secolo che muore”— and Angelo...
  • Eric Hobsbawm. “The Attitude of Popular Classes towards National Movements for Independence”. In: Mouvements nationaux d’Indépendance et classes...
  • Eric Hobsbawm. Años interesantes: una vida en el siglo xx. Crítica, Barcelona 2003, p. 458.
  • Eric Hobsbawm. Años interesantes..., op. cit., p. 457.
  • In fact, in his earliest major historiographic contributions, Hobsbawm appeared to be a historian of social phenomena, and here we should...
  • Eric Hobsbawm. Los ecos de la Marsellesa. Crítica, Barcelona 1992, p. 68.
  • Eric Hobsbawm. Los ecos..., op. cit., p. 39.
  • Hans Kohn, in La idea del nacionalisme. Un estudi dels seus orígens i antecedents (1944), considers nationalism a contemporary phenomenon...
  • This true forebear, which at that time exerted very little influence on Catalan historiography, entitled the French edition of his work La...
  • We could also add the book by Stein Rokkan Economia, territori, identitat i política de perifèries a l’Europa occidental (1983). It establishes...
  • Eric Hobsbawm. Naciones y nacionalismos desde 1780. Crítica, Barcelona 1991, p. 177.
  • See Benedict Anderson, Comunitats imaginades. Publicacions de la Universitat de València, Valencia 2005. This explains how, in the revolutions...
  • In his studies in Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries (including his 1963 La revolta dels catalans, which some regard as controversial),...
  • Another Marxist, Pierre Vilar, the author of Catalunya dins l’Espanya moderna. Els fonaments econòmics de les estructures nacionals (1962),...
  • Eric Hobsbawm. Naciones y nacionalismos..., op. cit., p. 29 (author’s translation).
  • A claim which is in line with what Pierre Vilar asserted; see note 17
  • In Estat nacional prussià i estat nacional alemany (1907), Friedrich Meinecke considers Bismarck the true creator of the German state. His...
  • See Tzvetan Todorov. Nous et les autres. Paris 1989. [22] It is curious to see how Hobsbawm did not apply this disparagement to the invention...
  • For the place occupied by “political mythologies” within contemporary Western political thinking as a whole, see Raoul Girardet. Mythes et...
  • Ferran Valls i Taberner (“La falsa ruta”. La Vanguardia, 15 February 1939) distinguished between the real Catalonia and the invented Catalonia...
  • On this point, it could be considered logical that Hobsbawm cited E. Weber and his often-used De pagesos a francesos; what I am incapable...
  • See Emilio Gentile. Le religioni della politica. Fra democrazie e totalitarismi. Rome and Bari 2001.
  • Anderson is another example of the cosmopolitan progressive: born in China in 1936 to an Irish father and English mother, he was raised in...
  • It is curious that the first to be known and cited in Catalonia was his brother Perry, a fellow historian and Marxist and a frequent contributor...
  • Hagen Schulze. Estado y nación en Europa (1815-1945). Crítica, Barcelona 1997.
  • Eric Hobsbawm. “Identidad”. In: Identidades comunitarias y democracia. Madrid 2000, pp. 47-62.
  • Jürgen Habermas. La inclusión del otro. Paidós, Barcelona 1999; and especially, Jürgen Habermas. Identidades nacionales y postnacionales (1988)....
  • Eric Hobsbawm. “Identidad’, op. cit., p. 62.
  • Eric Hobsbawm. La fine dello stato. Milan 2007; it includes “Nacions i nacionalisme en el nou segle”, “La perspectiva de la democràcia”, “Terrorisme”...
  • It is curious to observe how there have been significant ups and downs in this phenomenon of nationalism and its interpretation. Berlin spoke...
  • He personally explains the negative impact of the “crisis” of the 1960s in his autobiography, with unmitigated contempt of the Paris uprisings...
  • Enric Ucelay Da Cal. “Introducción a La historia en el 1995”. Ayer, 22 (1996), pp. 11-15.
  • Termes’ text was reissued in Josep Termes. La immigració a Catalunya i altres estudis d’història del nacionalisme català. Barcelona 1984.
  • The 1967 book by Solé Tura cited, as did everyone, the introduction by Pierre Vilar in Catalunya dins l’Espanya moderna; it also cited sociologists...
  • When commenting on the Termes and Casassas book El nacionalisme com a ideologia, the historian Martínez Fiol was able to state that “under...
  • These historical controversies can be read in detail in Albert Balcells. La història de Catalunya a debat. Els textos d’una polèmica. Curial,...
  • Josep M. Fradera. Cultura nacional en una societat dividida. Curial, Barcelona 1992 (as he confesses, the texts were written between 1988...
  • Joan Lluís Marfany. La cultura del catalanisme. El nacionalisme català en els seus orígens. Empúries, Barcelona 1995. This is the most promoted...
  • See Borja de Riquer. “Introducció”. In: Diversos autors. El catalanisme conservador. Girona 1996, pp. 7-23.
  • These aspects have been discussed by Enric Pujol in his book Tres imprescindibles: F. Soldevila, J. Vicens Vives i P. Vilar. Elements per...