Tim Blanning
Patriot Frames
The Nation Made Real: Art and National Identity in Western Europe, 1600–1850
By Anthony D Smith
Oxford University Press 213pp £30
The number of great paintings produced by modern secular ideologies is surprisingly small. Jacques-Louis David’s The Death of Marat and Eugène Delacroix’s Liberty Guiding the People stand out in a sparsely populated field. In particular, nationalist works are approached more as historical documents than as aesthetic experiences. One of the most reproduced pictures of the 19th century must be Anton von Werner’s The Proclamation of the German Empire, but its triumphalism is so out of sympathy with subsequent German history that it is rarely, if ever, discussed as a work of art. Significantly, the great exhibition of von Werner’s work staged in Berlin in 1993 was titled ‘History in Pictures’.
Now Anthony Smith, the doyen of anglophone historians of nationalism (he has published at least twenty books with ‘nation’ or its cognates in the title), has brought his formidable learning to bear on the subject. For him, visual images did not just illustrate the progress of national identity – they
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
Twitter Feed
Are iPhones ruining children's lives? A prominent American psychologist thinks so.
@tiffanyjenkins is not so sure:
Tiffany Jenkins - The Smartphone Pandemic
Tiffany Jenkins: The Smartphone Pandemic - The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an...
literaryreview.co.uk
India's 'festival of democracy', or general election, begins next month. Like every good festival, it looks likely to have its fair share of murders and arrests.
@OwenBennettJon probes the state of democracy in India:
Owen Bennett-Jones - New Delhi Confidential
Owen Bennett-Jones: New Delhi Confidential - The Incarcerations: BK-16 and the Search for Democracy in India by Alpa Shah
literaryreview.co.uk
Where is the world's newest narcostate and why is it thriving?
@AdamBrookesWord investigates Asia's meth mecca.
Adam Brookes - Meth Comes to Myanmar
Adam Brookes: Meth Comes to Myanmar - Narcotopia: In Search of the Asian Drug Cartel That Outwitted the CIA by Patrick Winn
literaryreview.co.uk