The Historical Challenges of Nationalism: Through the Eyes of Chatterjee and Appleby

Writing the history of a nation or national requires that, authors must deal with a number of pressing issues, including how they define and imagine a nation. There really is no one-size-fits-all definition of “nation,” because interpretations vary greatly depending upon the perspective of the author and the conditions under which they carry out their study. History is vital to explaining the significant impacts of events on society and culture. In this paper I would like to address dynamic challenges authors face when examining the idea of a nation brings to mind the question Appleby considered regarding what might bind together a diverse group of people under the banner of a particular nation. This issue is especially interesting in the context of his analysis of the problems with the formation of the American national identity. Another question related to this investigation, posited by Tosh, is whether the study of national history limits the scope of the writer of history. Finally, a third question, this posed by Chatterjee, deals with when looking at the way history has evolved, how we sort out the contradictory elements within a single nationalist discourse.