{"product_id":"the-myth-of-nations-the-medieval-origins-of-europe","title":"The Myth of Nations: The Medieval Origins of Europe.","description":"\u003cp\u003eModern-day Europeans by the millions proudly trace back their national identities to the Celts  Franks  Gauls  Goths  Huns  or Serbs--or some combination of the various peoples who inhabited  traversed  or pillaged their continent more than a thousand years ago. According to Patrick Geary  this is historical nonsense. The idea that national character is fixed for all time in a simpler  distant past is groundless  he argues in this unflinching reconsideration of European nationhood. Few of the peoples that many Europeans honor as sharing their sense of nation had comparably homogeneous identities; even the Huns  he points out  were firmly united only under Attilas ten-year reign.  Geary dismantles the nationalist myths about how the nations of Europe were born. Through rigorous analysis set in lucid prose  he contrasts the myths with the actual history of Europes transformation between the fourth and ninth centuries--the period of grand migrations that nationalists hold dear. The nationalist sentiments today increasingly taken for granted in Europe emerged  he argues  only in the nineteenth century. Ironically  this phenomenon was kept alive not just by responsive populations--but by complicit scholars.  Ultimately  Geary concludes  the actual formation of European peoples must be seen as an extended process that began in antiquity and continues in the present. The resulting image is a challenge to those who anchor contemporary antagonisms in ancient myths--to those who claim that immigration and tolerance toward minorities despoil nationhood. As Geary shows  such ideologues--whether Le Pens who champion the French people born with the baptism of Clovis in 496 or Milosevics who cite early Serbian history to claim rebellious regions--know their myths but not their history.  The Myth of Nations will be intensely debated by all who understood that a history that does not change  that reduces the complexities of many centuries to a single  eternal moment  isnt history at all.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44960937771061,"sku":"ByrdShop_0691090548","price":37.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780691090542.jpg?v=1770394543","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/the-myth-of-nations-the-medieval-origins-of-europe","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}