Towards Modern Nationhood
Towards Modern Nationhood
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Summary
This book compares how two underdog peoples shaped their modern national identities. Welsh Nonconformists, fighting for religious equality and social justice, established the Welsh radical tradition. Slovenes modernised their language and challenged the dominance of German in Slovene-speaking areas of the Habsburg Empire, which collapsed in 1918.
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Towards Modern Nationhood by Robin Okey
This book is a pioneering comparison of Wales with another small people, the Slovenes, over the formative period for national development in modern Europe. Language, religion and social conflict figured in both countries, but the determinant issue for national mobilisation was language equality for Slovene speakers, and religious equality for Welsh Nonconformists. Both options reflected their respective state contexts: the Habsburg empire’s acceptance of public multilingualism, and the religious pluralism long crucial in the British isles. British economic power, shown in the dramatic industrialisation of south Wales, strengthened a Welsh profile; relative Habsburg weakness detracted from Slovene language progress. The wartime premiership of a Welsh-speaking Nonconformist, Lloyd George, was no fluke – language-orientated East European scepticism about Welsh nationhood overlooks this context. The Welsh process was indeed more diffuse than the Slovene, involving the dual assimilation of immigrant workers to Welsh nationality, but also, less completely, Welsh language loss. The stories of Wales and Slovenia fascinate in themselves. They suggest, too, that alongside the ‘hard power’ of larger units, the ‘soft power’ of smaller communities’ traditions, linguistic, religious or other, is also a vital historical factor.| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781786839312 |
| ISBN 10 | 1786839318 |
| Title | Towards Modern Nationhood |
| Author | Robin Okey |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | University of Wales Press |
| Year published | 2023-11-15 |
| Number of pages | 344 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |