It is widely thought that Marx and Engels lacked a coherent understanding of nationalism. With the collapse of communist regimes and the resurgence of national and ethnic conflicts after the Cold War, the belief has spread that all forms of ‘Marxist’ thought – starting with that of its founders – were doomed by their insensitivity to national claims. This book questions these assumptions. Rejecting the tendency to read what Marx and Engels wrote through the prism of later events, it situates their writings on national issues in their original nineteenth‐century context. A close, contextual re‐ ... More

It is widely thought that Marx and Engels lacked a coherent understanding of nationalism. With the collapse of communist regimes and the resurgence of national and ethnic conflicts after the Cold War, the belief has spread that all forms of ‘Marxist’ thought – starting with that of its founders – were doomed by their insensitivity to national claims. This book questions these assumptions. Rejecting the tendency to read what Marx and Engels wrote through the prism of later events, it situates their writings on national issues in their original nineteenth‐century context. A close, contextual re‐reading of their writings shows that the two men had a far more perceptive understanding of national identity and conflict than is usually supposed. Their rigorously anti‐idealist approach was not the by‐product of a dogmatic ‘materialist’ or class‐centred theory, but a deliberate reaction against the rise of romantic and ethnocentric nationalism in their native Germany and beyond. By comparison with contemporaries such as Mazzini or John Stuart Mill, Marx and Engels had a clear grasp of nationalism's ethical ambivalence, particularly in the context of international relations. They recognised that although many national movements had liberating aims, they also had the potential to become a new cause of war, and thus to set back the reforms supported by liberals and republicans as well as communists. These elements of their thinking can be developed to criticize present‐day accounts that exaggerate the independent force of nationalism in history or contemporary politics. One need not be a ‘Marxist’ to appreciate the continuing relevance of such ideas.