Making and Unmaking the Nation in World History: Introduction

Abstract

<p>This special issue consists of six articles initially presented at a conference titled ‘(Un)Making the Nation’, held at the University of Cambridge on the 10th and 11th of September in 2015. With papers ranging across temporal, geographical and thematic boundaries, this international and interdisciplinary conference explored various new engagements with the concepts of nations and nationalism. The introduction traces the ways historians have sought to insert ‘the nation’ into their work in spite of the methodological challenges brought by the global turn. The goal is neither to bury the nation nor to resurrect it, but is rather to introduce some useful approaches through which the making and unmaking of nations in world history can be better understood. This article then concludes by offering a brief synopsis of the articles that constitute the wider issue.<br></p>