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European Nations: Explaining Their Formation . By Miroslav Hroch . Trans. Karolina Graham . New York : Verso , 2015. xii, 322 pp. Notes. Index. $26.95, paper.
Book Reviews
Miroslav Hroch is one of the giants of nationalism studies, along with Karl Deutsch, Ernest Gellner, Eric J. Hobsbawm, Anthony D. Smith, and Benedict Anderson. His earlier work--Social Preconditions of National Revival in Europe (Cambridge, 1985), first published as Die Vorkämpfer der nationalen Bewegungen bei den kleinen Völkern Europas (Prague, 1968)--has become a modern classic. A Czech Marxist, Hroch contributed to the social communication theories of nationalism by proposing three stages in the evolution of nationalism: Stage A, in which small groups of intellectuals, often clerics, wrote grammars and histories, collected folk tales and songs, and often in the isolation of their study began the elaboration of what will constitute the national; Stage B, when larger numbers of patriots--journalists, teachers, and political activists--spread the message of nationalism through the press, schools, and political circles; followed by Stage C, the moment when effective popular mobilization took place among the broader population. Carefully reconstructing the social backgrounds of the patriots...