THE THEORY OF NATIONHOOD

THE THEORY OF NATIONHOOD

Also by Derek Heater BRITAIN AND THE OUTSIDE WORLD CITIZENSHIP: The Civic Ideal in World History, Politics and Education CONTEMPORARY POLITICAL IDEAS ESSAYS ON CONTEMPORARY STUDIES ESSAYS ON POLITICAL EDUCATION (with Bernard Crick) FOUNDATIONS OF CITIZENSHIP (with Dawn Oliver) THE IDEA OF EUROPEAN UNITY INTRODUCTION TO INTERNATIONAL POLITICS (with G. R. Berridge) NATIONAL SELF-DETERMINATION: Woodrow Wilson and his Legacy ORDER AND REBELLION: A History of Europe in the Eighteenth Century PEACE THROUGH EDUCATION: The Contribution of the Council for Education in World Citizenship POLITICAL IDEAS IN THE MODERN WORLD THE REMARKABLE HISTORY OF ROTTINGDEAN WORLD CITIZENSHIP AND GOVERNMENT: Cosmopolitan Ideas in the History of Western Political Thought WORLD STUDIES: Education for International Understanding in Britain

The Theory of Nationhood A Platonic Symposium Derek Heater

First published in Great Britain 1998 by MACMILLAN PRESS LTD Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the wor1d A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN 978-1-349-26335-6 ISBN 978-1-349-26333-2 (ebook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-26333-2 First published in the United States of America 1998 by ST. MARTIN'S PRESS, INC., Scho1arly and Reference Division, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 lsbn 978-0-312-17596-2 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Heater, Derek Benjamin. The theory of nationhood : a platonic symposium 1 Derek Heater. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-312-17596-2 1. National state. 2. Nationalism. 1. Title. JC31I.H38 1997 320.54'01-DC21 <!;> Derek Heater 1998 Softcover reprint ofthe hardcover 1st edition 1998 978-0-333-71381-5 97-13023 CIP AII rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W 1 P 9HE. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author bas asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 07 06 OS 04 03 02 OI 00 99 98

Contents ACknowledgements A Note on Presentation vii viiii Part I: Prologue 1 Explanations Contexts Herder Fichte Mazzini Mill Renan Hitler Stalin 3 9 16 25 31 36 43 50 Part II: Discussion 61 First Session: The Nature of Nations Second Session: Political and Social Contexts Third Session: Rights and Characters of Nations Fourth Session: The Individual and the Nation 63 82 97 109 Part Ill: Summing Up 117 Judgements Introduction Herder Fichte Mazzini Mill Renan Hitler Stalin 119 120 127 134 142 144 147 153 v

vi Contents Comparisons Differences 160 Similarities 164 Conclusions 166 NOles 168 Bibliography 185 Index 189

Acknowledgements The author and publisher wish to thank the following particularly for permission to reproduce extracts from the works listed below: Editions Calmann-Levy SA for H. Psicheri (ed.), Q!uvres Completes de Ernest Renan, vol. 1; Hippocrene Books Inc. (Octagon Books) for R.R. Ergang, Herder and the Foundations of German Nationalism; HarperCollins Inc. (Harper and Row) for J.G. Fichte (ed. G.A. Kelly), Addresses to the German Nation; Lawrence and Wishart (Martin Lawrence) for J. Stalin, Marxism and the National and Colonial Question; Orion Publishing Group Ltd. (Dent) for J.S. Mill, Utilitarianism, On Liberty, and Considerations on Representative Government; Random House UK Ltd. (Pimlico) for A. Hitler (trans. R. Manheim), Mein Kampf. Excerpts from Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler, translated by Ralph Manheim, copyright 1943, renewed 1971 by Houghton Mifflin Company. vii

A Note on Presentation This book analyses the contributions which seven Europeans made to the theory of nationhood. It is divided into three parts. The core is presented as a symposium. The reader is. asked to imagine that I, as chairman-historian, have conjured up the spirits of these seven men to engage in a discussion about this topic. As I lead them through the subject-matter, each is brought to repeat the words he once wrote, in juxtaposition to the words of his fellow-contributors. These excerpts are distinguished from the surrounding, supporting text by being set in a bold typeface. This central symposium is buttressed by two conventionally structured parts to show, respectively, the contexts in which these men worked and wrote on the concept of nationhood and the judgements that have been and may be made about their ideas. Dramatis Personae Johann Gottfried Herder 1744-1803 Johann Gottlieb Fichte 1762-1814 Giuseppe Mazzini 1805-72 John Stuart Mill 1806-73 Ernest Renan 1823-92 Adolf Hitler 1889-1945 Joseph Stalin 1878-1953 Derek Heater viii

It is far from our intention to defend or apologise for the feelings that make men reckless of, or at least indifferent to, the rights and interests of any portion of the human species, save that which is called by the same name and speaks the same language as themselves, John Stuart Mill, 'Vindication of the French Revolution of February 1848' ix