Passions, patriotism and nationalism, and Germaine de Staël

Abstract

This essay examines the influence of sentimentalism on conceptions of patriotism at the turn of the nineteenth century in order to historicise conventional views of the nature of patriotism as a fundamental human emotion. It uses a focus on the intellectual thought of Germaine de Staël in order to understand how a 'sentimental' view of patriotism took hold at a crucial moment in the European history of the idea of the nation and of the conceptualisation of emotions. I argue that de Staël's ideas and influence lead us to a radical reconsideration of the significance of the emotional history of patriotism for how we explain nationalism. © Journal compilation © 2009 Association for the Study of Ethnicity and Nationalism.