Inventing national identity

Over a century ago the French historian Ernest Renán e the d___________of nations in Europe. "Nations are not e_____________________. They had a beginning and they will have an end. And they will probably be r______ by

a European confederation". His prophecy would be about to come true, were it not for an inherent c in European politics. Just as the maturing European U___________is beginning to r___________the n__________state, the ban- ner of n is being r__________all over the continent.

Nations are much younger than their official histories would have us believe. No nation in the modern, that is political, sense of the word existed before the ideological r___________ that began in the 18th century and c________ political power "on the people". But in 1800 we were still in the first stages of f____________ what Benedict Anderson has called "imagined communities". The c_____________ model for the generation of national identities was f____________ by European intellectuals in the course of the 19th century through a p______________________ and of mutual observation, imitation and transfer of ideas e_____________. From that time on, the nation was conceived as a broad с_____________ united by a l__________________ different in nature both from a_______________ to the same monarch and from membership of the same religion or social estate. The nation no longer d from the ruler. This powerfully subversive concept opened the way for entry into the age of democracy; but if it was to succeed, the future had to be J in terms of 1 to the past.

In order to move from a Europe of kings to a Europe of nations, d ___ population groups had to be convinced

that despite their obvious d___ they s________ an identity that was the basis for a collective interest. This was no easy matter. In 1800 the c__________ identity of a Prussian landowner and a Bavarian craftsman, for example, was far from self-evident. It was, in any case, far less certain than identifies based on social s , religion or a to a fairly restricted local area. To produce Germans, Hungarians or Italians, it was necessary to postulate a c of birth and community of filiation through the ages.

We have become used to d between two o concepts of the nation: the French concept, based on free, rational a of the individual to a political collectivity, and the German concept of objectively determined membership of an organic body. However, the construction of European nations has always i a mix of both of these concepts, even if the proportions have v_ with the political and social context. For generations of French schoolchildren, the teaching of civic rights and duties has always gone h_____________in h with the rote learning of a unified national history starting from the Gauls that ignores or g over wide d in regional experience.

Exercise 58

Complete the text with one word only.

In his September 1997 Conference speech, Tony Blair___________ the British nation like this: "We are by our and tradition innovators, adventures, pioneers". Yet Mr Blair's words have gone. The nation which_________ globalization and________ the industrial revolution remains stubbornly __________ to any involvement in the multi-globalism and the space-industrial revolution of the near future. I find this is a___________ insult to my__________ British identity, and can only suppose that our British genius for __________the future has fled the country and emigrated to America.

I believe that our_________ character ould best be expressed by taking _________of the tremendous opportunities for ___________space-oriented growth which face us. Britain should _________ its historic role rather than wait fro other countries to take the__________. Will we be as _________of our national destiny as were the _________of the Empire? Or will we try to pretend that we are no more than a province of the Unholy Belgian Empire, with no greater destiny than to ________ endlessly among ourselves about our internal bureaucracies and no ________of any universe greater than what lies immediately in front of our _____________? Will our most__________ and energetic "innovators, adventures, pioneers" have in future to __________US citizenship in order to

their dreams? Or will we be proud to be British? The question is very much one of our ____________of our

national destiny.

Exercise 59

Translate into English using the active vocabulary.

Европа черпает свою силу и мощь в многообразии. Од­нако это не должно подталкивать к превратному выводу о том, будто бы она должна оставаться неединой. В объеди­ненной Европе следует не устранять различия, а объединять многообразие. Мирный порядок и ценностная ориентация Европы не должны подменить идентичность европейских народов и наций. Они должны создать возводимое над ста­рыми нациями дополнительное европейство. Однако, так как лишь большая Европа может быть конкурентоспособ­ной и жизнеспособной — причем под жизнеспособностью подразумевается не прозябание, а реализация руководящей роли в мире, — то точно так же и европейские нации и на­роды с их культурами могут выжить лишь внутри более крупной объединенной Европы. Только в рамках большой Европы могут и дальше процветать сегодняшние куль­турные нации и региональные элементы во всем их много­образии.