NISE presents the intellectual autobiography of Miroslav Hroch Studying nationalism under changing conditions and regimes.

Miroslav Hroch has influenced nationalism scholars over the past 50 years, attracting a wide audience. So it is no surprise there have been already some publications dedicated to him, from Miloš Řezník & Ivana Slezáková’s volume of Nations – Identities – Historical Consciousness in 1997, over a Czech-language ‘festschrift’ in 2000 (Jan Pelikán), to the commemoration in 2010 of the 25th anniversary of the English translation of the Vorkämpfer-publication in a special issue of the journal Nationalities Papers.

Less well known remain the circumstances for the intellectual journey which Miroslav Hroch has made, setting off for good in 1968 with the publication of Die Vorkämpfer der nationalen Bewegung bei den kleinen Völkern Europas: Eine vergleichende Analyse zur gesellschaftlichen Schichtung der patriotischen Gruppen. As it was 50 years ago in 2018 that landmark text for the study of national movements became public, we invited Miroslav Hroch to fill that gap for the NISE Essays series.

The result was translated from the German original version by Joep Leerssen (University of Amsterdam). John Breuilly (LSE) provided the introduction. The publication moreover contains a bibliographical section and a biographical factsheet. Finally a sample of reviews of the Vorkämpfer book is reproduced on this website (link), as well as the original (unedited) German version (link).

A book presentation event is organised in Prague, see here for the program.

M. Hroch, Studying nationalism under changing conditions and regimes. An intellectual autobiography, Antwerp, Peristyle, 2018, is the third essay in the NISE Monographs and Essays Series.

The publication will be available from 1 September 2018, but you can order here already now.