Miroslav Hroch, Professor in History, Faculty of Humanities, Charles University, Prague.
PhDr h.c. University Uppsala, 1997; University Halle-Wittenberg, 2003; Vytautas Magnus University Kaunas 2007. Visiting Professor at Technische Universitat Chemnitz; European University Institute, Florence; Martin-Luther-University Halle; University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA); University Saarbruecken (Germany); Freiburg (Germany). Guest Lecturer at universities at the US and most European countries. His books include: Die Vorkämpfer der nationalen Bewegungen bei den kleinen Völkern Europas, Prague, Charles University 1968; Handel und Politik im Ostseeraum während des Dreissigjährigen Krieges, Prague, Charles University 1977; Das 17. Jahrhundert – Krise der Feudalgesellschaft ? Hamburg 1981 (co-author J.Petran); Social Preconditions of National Revival in Europe, Cambridge UP 1985 (2nd edition Columbia UP 2000); Ecclesia Militans. The Inquisition in the Times of Counter Reformation, (also in German and French Translation), NY, Dorset 1987 (co-author A.Skybova); In the National Interest, Prague, Faculty of Arts 2000; Das Europa der Nationen. Die moderne Nationsbildung im europaischen Verglech, Gottingen, Vandenhoeck-Ruprecht 2005 – English translation European Nations, Their Formation, Verso 2015.
Nations as Social Groups or as Abstract Communities of Cultural Values?
Point of departure of my reflections is the conviction that to observe the current issue of “new nationalism” without regard to its object – the nation, means entering a vicious circle. Trying to analyze the problem in a qualified way, we have primarily to understand the nation and its changes at two interconnected levels: in the sense of a large social group of citizens, understanding themselves as a nation, asnd in the sense of an abstract cultural value-community. Even though we observe that European nation as a value community declines during last decades, the nation as social group remains strong. Where are the roots of this development? And what does it mean in the context of globalization?
