This edited collection examines the role that language has played in forming modern European nations. With language an omnipresent issue within the European Union, the importance languages have played within the histories and present situations of member nations is a crucial topic.

Introduction; T.Judt & D.Lacorne PART 1: THE LIMITS OF NATIONAL MONOLINGUALISM French Jacobinism and the Challenge of Linguistic, Ethnic, and Regional Variety; A.Fenet Occitan: The History of Decline; P.Martel Language Wars in the USA: The Case of California; D.Lopez PART 2: THE FRAGILITY OF PLURILINGUAL NATIONS Nationalism versus Bilingualism: The Belgian Case; A.von Busekist Struggling Against Territory: Language Policy in Canada; K.McRoberts Multiculturalism and Plurilingualism: The Swiss Experience; U.Windisch PART 3: NATION-MAKING AND LINGUISTIC REVIVALS The Invention of Hebrew as a Daily Language; A.Dieckhoff Acculturation and Linguistic Reconstruction in Ukraine, Lithuania, and Belorusse; D.Beauvois Unity and Plurality in the Serbo-Croatian Linguistic Domain; P.Garde Conclusion: The Internet: A New Babel? Languages and Language Communities in the Age of Electronic Discourses; G.Nunberg

"By contrasting linguistic diversity and language policies across societies, this fine collection provides a unique lens into the status of minorities at a time when multiculturalism is on many scholarly and political agendas. The essays will be of great value to anyone interested in the variable articulation between collective identities, nations, ethnicities, states, and rights." - Michele Lamont, Harvard University, co-author of Comparative Cultural Sociology: Repertoires of Evaluation in France and the United States "This is a truly outstanding collection of essays on an important and timely subject. There are some outstanding monographs on particular countries, but this is a wide-ranging collection directed by two well- known scholars with an excellent comparative introductory essay. It covers France, the U.S.-California, Canada, Belgium, Switzerland, Serbo-Croatian, Eastern Europe, and Israel. Each of the essays is by a specialist and can be used - as I do in my own work - as a basic reference." - Juan Linz, Yale University