Language, Nation and State: Identity Politics in a Multilingual Age

This book examines the role that language has played in forming modern European nations. With language an omnipresent issue within the European Union, the importance languages have played within the histories and present situations of member nations is a crucial topic. Drawing on an international cast of contributors, the book explores the issues of monolingualism vs. plurilingualism within individual nations, the revival of languages in nations such as former soviet republics, and concludes with a look at language in the electronic age.

"By contrasting linguistic diversity and language policies across societies, this fine collection provides a unique lens into the status of minorities at a time when multiculturalism is on many scholarly and political agendas. The essays will be of great value to anyone interested in the variable articulation between collective identities, nations, ethnicities, states, and rights."

-- Michele Lamont, Harvard University, co-author of Comparative

Cultural Sociology: Repertoires of Evaluation in France and the United States

"This is a truly outstanding collection of essays on an important and timely subject. There are some outstanding monographs on particular countries, but this is a wide-ranging collection directed by two well- known scholars with an excellent comparative introductory essay. It covers France, the U.S.-California, Canada, Belgium, Switzerland, Serbo-Croatian, Eastern Europe, and Israel. Each of the essays is by a specialist and can be used - as I do in my own work - as a basic reference."

-- Juan Linz, Yale University

As Europe moves closer to adopting English and its de facto lingua franca, this collection of essays explores the links between politics, nationalism monolingualism, and multilingualism

This book examines the role that language has played in forming modern European nations. With language an omnipresent issue within the European Union, the importance languages have played within the histories and present situations of member nations is a crucial topic. Drawing on an international cast of contributors, the book explores the issues of monolingualism vs. plurilingualism within individual nations, the revival of languages in nations such as former soviet republics, and concludes with a look at language in the electronic age.

Tony Judt is Professor of European Studies at NYU and Director of the Remarque Institute.

Denis Lacorne is Director of Research at FNSP/CERI and teaches at l'Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris.

Introduction--Tony Judt and Denis Lacorne * Part 1: The Limits of National Monolingualism * French Jacobinism and the Challenge of Linguistic, Ethnic, and Regional Variety--Alain Fenet * Occitan: The History of Decline--Philippe Martel * 3. Language Wars in the USA: The Case of California--David Lopez * Part 2: The Fragility of Plurilingual Nations * Nationalism versus Bilingualism: The Belgian Case--Astrid von Busekist * Struggling Against Territory: Language Policy in Canada--Kenneth McRoberts * Multiculturalism and Plurilingualism: The Swiss Experience--Uli Windisch * Part 3: Nation-Making and Linguistic Revivals * The Invention of Hebrew as a Daily Language--Alain Dieckhoff * Acculturation and Linguistic Reconstruction in Ukraine, Lithuania, and Belorusse-Daniel Beauvois * Unity and Plurality in the Serbo-Croatian Linguistic Domain--Paul Garde * Conclusion: The Internet: A New Babel? * Languages and Language Communities in the Age of Electronic Discourses--Geoffrey Nunberg