National Consciousness, Nationalism and Exclusion: Reflections on the French Case

"the measles of mankind." According to this definition, recent events suggest that we are in the midst of an epidemic. Nowhere is the outbreak worse than in Europe. In the Balkans and in the former Soviet Union, where many analysts had assumed that the homogenizing tendencies of communist bureaucracies had reduced the potency of national identities, we are seeing some of the worst excesses of ethnic, racial, and religious intolerance. And nationalist tendencies are not confined to areas in the process of liberating themselves from the confines of the disintegrating Soviet empire. There are movements in many Western European countries which define themselves as "nations" and dream of autonomy. They seek independence from the overbearing states that police them and occupy seats in the United Nations, that are recognized by the European Economic Community, and that have administrative structures that impose laws and taxes. But if strains of nationalism have re-emerged in certain areas of Europe with horrifying vigor, there is nothing new about the disease itself. Recent events in Bosnia-Herzegovina have a haunting familiarity because they echo the dreadful conflicts of previous periods. Indeed, anyone forced to choose a label for European affairs during this century would have difficulty finding one more appropriate than the "Age of Nationalism"; I have found myself calling my course on twentiethcentury European history "From Sarajevo to Sarajevo."