Nationalism in Belgium: Shifting Identities, 1780-1995 [Hardcover]

This is a book about shifting national identities in Belgium. It is an attempt to show how these identities emerged and evolved. It aims at explaining why the Belgian identity, which in 1830 was so strong that it could create a new nation-state, has become so weak that today it has to accept a mere overarching role above and in competition with the new national loyalties. More and more people wonder whether this country will survive.Acknowledgements Notes on the Contributors Introduction; K.Deprez & L.Vos PART ONE: BELGIAN NATION BUILDING Belgian Liberties and Loyalty to the House of Austria; J.Roegiers The Two Belgian Revolutions; L.Wils Painting at the Service of the New Nation-State; L.Pil National Imagery in 19th Century Flemish Literature; P.Couttenier The Symbolic Deficit. French Literature in Belgium and 19th Century National Sentiment; C.Berg Henri Conscience and the French Revolution; P.Raxhon PART TWO: THE WANING OF BELGIUM The Flemish National Question; L.Vos The Language of the Flemings; K.Deprez The Catholic Church and the Flemish Movement; L.Gevers Sport and the Flemish Movement. Resistance and Accommodation 1868-1914; R.Renson The Christian Workers' Movement as a Mass Foundation of the Flemish Movement; E.Gerard The Growth of the Walloon Movement; C.Kesteloot Four Definitions of Culture in Francophone Belgium; J.Fontaine PART THREE: NATIONAL IDENTITIES IN A FEDERAL STATE Unequal Economic Development at the Origin of the Federalisation Process; P.Saey, C.Kesteloot & C.Vandermotten Belgium's Peculiar Way to Federalism; R.Falter The National Consciousness of the Flemings and the Walloons. An Empirical Investigation; B.Maddens, R.Beerten & J.Billiet Nationalism in Present-Day Flanders; J.Bouveroux Present-Day Wallonia. The Search for an Identity without Nationalist Mania; P.Destatte A Brussels Identity? A Speculative Interpretation; S.Govaert Germans, German Belgians, German-Speaking Belgians; H.Jenniges Are the Immigrants the Last Belgians?; lă