Conceptions of nationalism as a historical and contemporary phenomenon remain fragmentary in the late-1990s. This text analyzes the contraditions inherent in the general understanding of nationalism in order to fashion a new intellectual synthesis.

Part 1 What is the nation? civil society, ethnicity and the state - a threefold relationship; citizenship, ethnicity and cultural reproduction; democracy, ethnicity and right-extremist movements; commemoration - why remember? Part 2 Ethnicity and cultural reproduction: a taxonomy of myths and their functions; social processes without actors? conspiracy theories and the quest for enemies in central and eastern Europe; aspects of language and ethnicity in central and eastern Europe; ethnic minorities in central and eastern Europe - analyses and prognoses. Part 3 The state, Communism and post-Communism: why empires fail; cultural diversity and good governance - some general considerations; the Communist experience and nationhood; an analysis of post-Communism; culture and identity in post-Communist Europe; the rise of anti-democratic movements in post-Communist societies; nationhood, Communism, and state legitimation; culling sacred cows? state frontiers and stability. Part 4 Minorities: the problem of ethnic minorities in central and eastern Europe; nationalism and ethnic minorities in post-Communist Europe; inter-ethnic relations in Transylvania. Part 5 The ethnic factor reconsidered: Englishness - citizenship, ethnicity and class; Yugoslavia - state construction and state failure; power, ethnicity and politics in Yugoslavia; Hungary and its neighbours -Hungary as a kin state.