Inventing the modern region
Basque identity and the French nation-state
- ISBN: 9781526194886
- Editorial: Manchester University Press
- Fecha de la edición: 2026
- Lugar de la edición: Manchester. Reino Unido
- Colección: Studies in Modern French History
- Encuadernación: Rústica
- Medidas: 22 cm
- Nº Pág.: 272
- Idiomas: Inglés
This book explores the process by which the French Basque country acquired a folkloric regional identity in the long nineteenth century. It argues that, despite its origins in pre-modern customs, this stereotypical identity was invented as part of France's process of nation-building. The abolition of privileges in 1789 prompted a new interest in local culture as the defining feature of provincial France, shaping the transition from the pre-'modern' province to the 'modern' region. The relationship between the region and the nation, however, was difficult. Regional culture favoured the integration of the French Basque provinces into the French nation-state but also challenged the authority of the central state. As a result, Basque region-building reveals the strengths and weaknesses of the unitary model of French nationhood, in the nineteenth century as well as today.
Introduction: region- and nation-building in nineteenth-century Europe
Adapting the Revolution
Basque soldiers in a French nation
Liberty, liberties and legitimism in the First Carlist War
Euskara or the spirit of the Basque nation
Inventing a Basque literary tradition
Euskara or challenges to the French nation
'The other within': ideas of progress and decline in Basque travel writing
Reversing the 'tourist gaze'
Conclusion: a Basque region in a French nation
