Abstract
One of the problems associated with attempts to promote a popular sense of European identity is that there are no obvious historical models to serve as a guide. The most inviting analogy is with the process of nation-building in Europe itself in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, but this raises a number of problems. Given what one author has called ‘the novelty of our historical circumstances’ (Gray, 1996, p. 19), the drawing of parallels between such different periods is clearly a hazardous undertaking. Furthermore, the very success of the national idea has itself raised obstacles to the development of supranational identities.
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© 2000 Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited
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Jenkins, B. (2000). From Nation-Building to the Construction of Europe: the Lessons and Limitations of the French Example. In: Andrew, J., Crook, M., Waller, M. (eds) Why Europe? Problems of Culture and Identity. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780333983065_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780333983065_9
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
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