This book examines the role of language in the present and past creation of social, cultural, and national identities in Europe. It considers the way in which language politics may sometimes reinforce national identity (as in France), or sometimes tend to undermine the nation-state (as in Spain). After an introduction describing the interactive roles of language, ethnicity, culture, and institutions in the character and formation of nationalism and national identity, the book considers their different manifestations throughout Europe.

This is an accessible investigation of a subject of perennial importance in European culture and politics. It will be of equal interest to political scientists, historians, and sociolinguists. Chapters by leading scholars are devoted to Britain and Ireland; France; Spain and Portugal; Scandinavia, Iceland, and Finland; the Netherlands and Belgium; Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Luxembourg; Italy; Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic; Bulgaria, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Albania, Slovenia, Romania, Croatia, Macedonia, and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia; Greece and Turkey; the Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, the Baltic States, and the Russian Federation. The book concludes with a consideration of the relative status of the languages of Europe and how these, and the identities they reflect, are changing and evolving.