Oliver Zimmer was educated at the University of Zurich (Lic. Phil. I) and at the London School of Economics and Political Science (Ph.D.), and he began his academic career at the University of Durham in 1999. In 2005 he took up a University Lectureship (CUF) at Oxford. Previous publications include Nationalism in Europe, 1890–1940 (2003) and Power and the Nation in European History (edited with Len Scales, Cambridge University Press, 2005).

• List of illustrations; List of tables; Preface; Introduction: history, memory and the politics of national identity; 1. Confederate identity before nationalism - events, politics, symbols; Part I. Towards the Cult of the Nation: 2. Dreaming of the wider fatherland - the nation of the patriots; 3. Contentious unity - the rise and fall of an indivisible nation; 4. 'The nation has had her say at last'; Part II. The Birth of the Modern Mass Nation: 5. 'We have become a people'; 6. Competing visions of the nation's past; Afterword; Bibliography; Index.

'There are many strengths here, alongside the relative uniqueness of the subject. Zimmer's work is soundly based on historical, political and sociological theories of nation development. ... This is supplemented by extensive work in Swiss archives and historiography. And all is set in a helpful comparative perspective … Zimmer makes [a] … real contribution to our understanding of Swiss identity, then and now.' English Historical Review

Oliver Zimmer was educated at the University of Zurich (Lic. Phil. I) and at the London School of Economics and Political Science (Ph.D.), and he began his academic career at the University of Durham in 1999. In 2005 he took up a University Lectureship (CUF) at Oxford. Previous publications include Nationalism in Europe, 1890–1940 (2003) and Power and the Nation in European History (edited with Len Scales, Cambridge University Press, 2005).

• List of illustrations; List of tables; Preface; Introduction: history, memory and the politics of national identity; 1. Confederate identity before nationalism - events, politics, symbols; Part I. Towards the Cult of the Nation: 2. Dreaming of the wider fatherland - the nation of the patriots; 3. Contentious unity - the rise and fall of an indivisible nation; 4. 'The nation has had her say at last'; Part II. The Birth of the Modern Mass Nation: 5. 'We have become a people'; 6. Competing visions of the nation's past; Afterword; Bibliography; Index.

'There are many strengths here, alongside the relative uniqueness of the subject. Zimmer's work is soundly based on historical, political and sociological theories of nation development. ... This is supplemented by extensive work in Swiss archives and historiography. And all is set in a helpful comparative perspective … Zimmer makes [a] … real contribution to our understanding of Swiss identity, then and now.' English Historical Review

Oliver Zimmer was educated at the University of Zurich (Lic. Phil. I) and at the London School of Economics and Political Science (Ph.D.), and he began his academic career at the University of Durham in 1999. In 2005 he took up a University Lectureship (CUF) at Oxford. Previous publications include Nationalism in Europe, 1890–1940 (2003) and Power and the Nation in European History (edited with Len Scales, Cambridge University Press, 2005).

• List of illustrations; List of tables; Preface; Introduction: history, memory and the politics of national identity; 1. Confederate identity before nationalism - events, politics, symbols; Part I. Towards the Cult of the Nation: 2. Dreaming of the wider fatherland - the nation of the patriots; 3. Contentious unity - the rise and fall of an indivisible nation; 4. 'The nation has had her say at last'; Part II. The Birth of the Modern Mass Nation: 5. 'We have become a people'; 6. Competing visions of the nation's past; Afterword; Bibliography; Index.

'There are many strengths here, alongside the relative uniqueness of the subject. Zimmer's work is soundly based on historical, political and sociological theories of nation development. ... This is supplemented by extensive work in Swiss archives and historiography. And all is set in a helpful comparative perspective … Zimmer makes [a] … real contribution to our understanding of Swiss identity, then and now.' English Historical Review