With the end of the Cold War and the triumph of globalization, many believed that nationalism was now a thing of the past: instead, the opposite is true. The essays in this anthology are based on the Engelsberg Seminar in 2017, where different kinds of identity formation were considered. How does a nation emerge? How is unity achieved in an empire with a diverse population? These wide-ranging essays consider the issue from a number of vantage points, touching upon figures as diverse as Garibaldi, Trump, Hitler, Napoleon and more.

Contributors include: Philip Bobbitt, Gillian Clark, Christopher Coker, Carlos Escude, Richard J. Evans, Jonathan Fenby, Robin Lane Fox, Jessica Frazier, David Goodhart, Freddy Gray, Steven Grosby, Tom Holland, Lawrence James, Jeremy Jennings, Josef Joffe, Rob Johnson, Charles S. Maier, Tim Marshall, Iain Martin, Janne Haaland Matlary, Simon Mayall, Lucy Riall, Larry Siedentop, Lars Tragardh, Maurizio Viroli, Harvey Whitehouse, Peter H. Wilson and Martina Winkelhofer.