European Nationalism And National Historical Writing From The French Revolution To The Middle Of The Nineteenth Century

The French Revolution created a new national concept,from now on,ethnic and national sovereignty become bound in collective identity together.The social ideals and political theories inferred from the universal philosophy of enlightenment have been fulfilled by the French Revolution,but it was also frustrated by the deviation and out of control of the French Revolution,and then the ethos of Romanticism emerged.The emphasis of the Enlightenment on universality and the emphasis of Romanticism on particularity are projected onto the writing of national history,and formed a national history of enlightenment and a national history of romanticism.Germany was the center of western history in the nineteenth Century,and it had a special social and historical environment,which made it the stage of the romantic national history.The theoretical analysis and philosophical inquiry into the relationship between nation and nationalism have re-positioned the concept of national history,and formed two kinds of interpretations of national history,which lead to our thinking about the history of the nation in two directions.