The Mosaic Moment: An Early Modernist Critique of Modernist Theories of Nationalism

Most theorists of nationalism are modernists: they regard nationalism as an essentially modern phenomenon. This article takes issue with the modernist position. Drawing on primary and secondary evidence from the Netherlands, England, and other early modern polities, it documents the existence of movements and ideologies that must be classified as national and nationalist by the modernists' own criteria. It is then argued that some nationalist discourses had medieval roots and that they were no less nationalistic than the nationalisms of the French Revolution. In the conclusion, the theoretical premises of the modernist position are subjected to critical examination.