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American academic
"My first publications on nationalism contained extended references to religion ... Subsequent familiarity with the impressive sociological work by
Peter L. Berger
and
Thomas Luckmann
enabled me to show more clearly how nationalism, as a type of identity, 'shelters the individual from ultimate terror', that is, death as 'the most terrifying breakdown of identity' ... In general, I share this consensus, while stipulating that
nations
, but no particular nation of the modern type, and certainly not
nationalism
existed before the 16th century. Such issues of timing and agency are very important to my theory, for my methodological preference is for intensive employment of historical data over the
longue duree
... The pre-modern social formations that I treat in
Nations before Nationalism
(1982) and elsewhere ... require a national idea. Fundamental themes are myth, symbol, and communication, especially as they relate to boundary mechanisms of a psychological rather than territorial nature."
Myth and Symbolism Theory of Nationalism, John A. Armstrong, 2001.
[1]
John Alexander Armstrong Jr.
(4 May 1922 – 2010) was
Professor Emeritus
of political science at the
University of Wisconsin-Madison
.
Born in
St. Augustine, Florida
on 4 May 1922, he entered
the University of Chicago
at age 20 where he received both bachelor's and master's degrees. However, the date of his graduation was delayed by his enlistment in the U.S. Army in Belgium during World War II, from 1944 to 1945. Such experience appears to have certain impacts upon the direction of his academic research on nationalism in Europe afterwards.
He entered
Columbia University
for further study in 1950 and received a Ph.D. three years later.
[2]
His earlier works focus on nationalism and ideologies in Europe, especially
Ukraine
and
Russia
during the 1950s and 1960s. The most influential work of his is the path-breaking
Nations before Nationalism
(1982) which firstly systematically expressed the
longue duree
of ethnic identity and has inspired theorists of
ethnosymbolism
including
Anthony D. Smith
.
Selected publications
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References
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