Old Nations, Auld Enemies, New Times

TOM NAIRN, after serving time on the hulk of HMS Britain, escaped to teach ‘Nationalism Studies’ at Edinburgh University, then to research ‘Globalisation and Nationalism’ at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Victoria, Australia. His book The Break-up of Britain appeared in 1977 (Verso Books, most recent edition Common Ground Publishing, Melbourne, 2003). Faces of Nationalism (Verso) appeared in 1997 and Global Matrix (Pluto Press, with Paul James) in 2005.JAMIE MAXWELL is a political journalist. He writes for the New Statesman, Bella Caledonia and the Scottish Review of Books, among other publications. He is the editor of The Case for Left Wing Nationalism, a collection of his late father Stephen Maxwell’s essays.PETE RAMAND is the co-author of Yes: the Radical Case for Scottish Independence and a co-founder of the Radical Independence Campaign. In 2013 he received an MSc (with distinction) in Nationalism Studies from the University of Edinburgh.

For originality of mind, Tom Nairn is without equal among his contemporaries. In fifty years, there has never been a time in my memory in which what he was saying went with the flow of opinion, on the left or at large … All of this in a style of extraordinary vigour and beauty – and not least humour: writing as democratic as his own unswerving politics. One thinks: if only there were more like him. But that would be a contradiction in terms. – PERRY ANDERSON, New Left ReviewTom Nairn is well known both as a major contributor to debates about Scottish nationalism and the re-configuring of the current UK, and as a supremely thoughtful and witty writer. This collection of his writings illustrates the evolution of his ideas and will be invaluable. Whether one agrees with Nairn or not, his arguments always make one think afresh. – LINDA COLLEY, Professor of History, Princeton University