El debat de la nació: una nota sobre l’anomenat protonacionalisme

At the end of the XX century, a radical new form of writing –and conceiving- the history of nations began. Eric J. Hobsbawm was, without doubt, one the architects of this paradigm shift, as well as Ernest Gellner, Benedict Anderson and others authors who were no less daring and iconoclastic. The result of it all was a breakdown with the classic historiograhy –and sociology- of nations, the clarification of some old controversies and,  finally, the breakthrough of a certain number of new questions. The so called protonationalism –a Hobsbawms term- is one of these pending –or not yet full solved- questions. The author suggests that the nation’s modernizing paradigm would be more consistent if it incorporated the detailed analysis of some regional paths in the Early Modern Europe.