This book offers the most up–to–date survey of current perspectives and debates in the fields of nations and nationalism. It brings together a selected group of leading scholars in each of the sub–fields who offer a comprehensive and challenging approach to the study of nationalism. The authors represent a variety of outlooks which include history, sociology, politics, gender studies and ethnography while providing a wide coverage in historical and geographical terms. Understanding Nationalism commemorates the tenth anniversary of the creation of the Association for the Study of Ethnicity and Nationalism and in so doing it undoubtedly marks the coming of age of nationalism as a subject for scholarly production and debate. All the authors have written pioneering studies on ethnicity and nationalism: Walker Connor and Steven Grosby on the primordial attachments of nationalists, John Armstrong and Anthony Smith on the historical and symbolic roots of nations, John Hutchinson and Kosaku Yoshino on cultural nationalism, John Breuilly on the relationship between state and nationalism, Crawford Young on the relationship between nation–states and cultural pluralism, Michael Mann on nationalism and politics, Nira Yuval–Davis on gender and nation and Montserrat Guibernau on contemporary nationalisms. This volume will be indispensable for anyone interested in the phenomenon of nationalism today and will be widely recommended on courses in politics, sociology and related disciplines.