Empires, Nations and Wars

Empires, Nations and Wars brings together the major articles and lectures of Sir Michael Howard during his time as Regius Professor of Modern History at the University of Oxford. Some reflect on contemporary events, but most are concerned with the historical process which underlies international politics, and the nature of the insights which historians should be able to bring to the study of world affairs. In particular, they deal with the evolution of 'nations' and of nationalism in nineteenth-century Europe, that process of 'modernisation' which, beginning in Western Europe in the eighteenth century, was by the end of the twentieth to encompass the entire world, and whose effects trouble us still. This fascinating and elegantly written book will be read with profit and enjoyment by all who seek insight into the historical process and a better understanding of the world in which we live.