Table of Contents

Part 1 The disintegration of the Universal Church and the development of a new world vision: Grotius, Vico and Rousseau - historical background; the attack on Christendom; natural law and the social contract; religious wars and the need for international arrangements. Part 2 Internationalism and the French revolution: Kant, Paine and Robespierre - historical background; the development of the bourgeoisie prior to the French Revolution; reason, deism and the internationalist spirit of solidarity; "La Patrie" - the lighthouse of internationalism. Part 3 The rise of nationalism and the counter-enlightenment; Burke, De Maistre and Fichte - historical background; the revolt against universal reason; towards an organic and relativist theory of the nation; from internationalism to nationalism; conclusion - the great fusion.

About the Author

Micheline Ishay is currently assistant professor at the Graduate School of International Studies at Denver University, where she is also serving as director of the human rights program and executive director of the Center on Rights Development. She is coeditor of The Nationalism Reader (1994).

Craig Calhoun is professor of sociology and history and director of the University Center for International Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is the editor of the Contradictions of Modernity series for the University of Minnesota Press.