National History and New Nationalism in the Twenty-First Century
A Global Comparison
Routledge Approaches to History Series

National history has once again become a battlefield. In internal political conflicts, which are fought on the terrain of popular culture, museums, schoolbooks, and memorial politics, it has taken on a newly important and contested role. Irrespective of national specifics, the narratives of new nationalism are quite similar everywhere. National history is said to stretch back many centuries, expressesing the historical continuity of a homogeneous people and its timeless character. This people struggles for independence, guided by towering leaders and inspired by the sacrifice of martyrs. Unlike earlier forms of nationalism, the main enemies are no longer neighbouring states, but international and supranational institutions. To use national history as an integrative tool, new nationalists claim that the media and school history curricula should not contest or question the nation and its great historical deeds, as doubts threaten to weaken and dishonour the nation. This book offers a broad international overview of the rhetoric, contents, and contexts of the rise of these renewed national historical narratives, and of how professional historians have reacted to these phenomena. The contributions focus on a wide range of representative nations from around all over the globe.

National History and New Nationalism in the Twenty-First Century: Introductory Remarks 1. National Historical Master Narratives and War Museums in Contemporary Europe: A Comparative Analysis 2. Populism and Nationalism in Recent British Historiography 3. German National History in the Age of "Aufarbeitung" 4. The Remarkable Persistence of the Ghost of a Nation: Contesting the Nation in Public and Historical Discourse in the Netherlands in the Twenty-First Century 5. Production and Politics of the National Narrative in France 6. The Resilience of National Histories: "Two Spains" versus the Periphery? 7. Reflections on Swiss Historiography in Times of New Nationalism 8. Nation and the "Retrotopic" Politics of History in Poland 9. "Politics of History" and Authoritarian Regime-Building in Hungary After 1990 10. The Past that Never Left?: Nationalism, Historiography, and the Yugoslav Wars 11. The Ottomans and "My People": The Populist-Nationalist Discourse in Turkey Under the AKP Government 12. Independence, Revolution, War, and the Renaissance of National History in Ukraine 13. Between "Europe" and Russian "Sonderweg", Between "Empire" and "Nation": Historiography, Politics of History, and Discussion Within Society in Russia 14. Res Publica Historicissima: The Politics of History in Israel 15. National Pride versus Critical History: American Memory Wars 16. Memory, History, and the Politics of the Hindu Right 17. Chinese National History: The Manchu-Qing in New Clothes 18. New Nationalism in Japan in the Twenty-First Century. Conclusion

Niels F. May is Research Coordinator at the German Historical Institute in Paris.

Thomas Maissen is the Director of the German Historical Institute in Paris.