Historians traditionally claim to be myth-breakers, but national history since the nineteenth century shows quite a record in myth-making. This exciting new volume compares how national historians in Europe have handled the opposing pulls of fact and fiction and shows which narrative strategies have contributed to the success of national histories.

Presents in-depth microstudies to underline the role historians have played in the construction of nationhood in 19th and 20th century Europe, including ideas of ethnicity, class, religion and gender

Preface Notes on Contributors Introduction; S.Berger & C.Lorenz Narrativizations of the Past: The Theoretical Debate and the Example of the Weimar Republic; J.Eckel Double Trouble: a Comparison of the Politics of National History in Germany and Quebec; C.Lorenz Setting the Scene for National History; J.Leerssen A Strained Relationship: Epistemology and Historiography in Eighteenth and Nineteenth-Century Germany and Britain; A.Epple Wars of Religion in National History Writing at the Beginning of the Twentieth Century: P. J. Blok, Karl Lamprecht, Ernest Lavisse and Henri Pirenne; G.Warland Heretics into National Heroes: Jules Michelet's Joan of Arc and Frantisek Palacky's John Hus; M.Baar History and Politics: Interpretations of Early Modern Conquest and Reformation in Victorian Ireland; M.Caball Narrating the Building of a Small Nation: Divergence and Convergence in the Historiography of the Estonian 'National Awakening', 1868-2005; J.Hackmann Theorizing and Practicing 'Scientific' History in South-Eastern Europe (19th-20th c.): Spyridon Lambros and Nicolae Jorga; E.Gazi Theatre Histories and the Construction of National Identity: The Cases of Norway and Finland; I.Pikkanen Nation, State and Empire: The Historiography of 'High Imperialism' in the British and Russian Empires; A.Mycock & M.Loskoutova Inside-out: the Purposes of Form in Friedrich Meinecke's and Robert Aron's Explanations of National Disaster; H.Frey & S.Jordan Ends of Empire: Decolonising the Nation in British and French Historiography; R.Aldrich & S.Ward Clio and Class Struggle in Socialist Histories of the Nation: A Comparison of Robert Grimm's and Eduard Bernstein's Writings, 1910-1920; T.Welskopp Rewriting National History in Post-War Central Europe: Marxist Syntheses of Austrian and Czechoslovak History as New National Master Narratives; P.Kola? Nineteenth Century Liberal Master Narratives Revisited: A Comparison of Gyula Szekf? and Benedetto Croce; A.v.Klimo After the Deluge: The Impact of the Two World Wars on the Historical Work of Henri Pirenne and Marc Bloch; P.Schottler The Lombard League in nineteenth-century historiography, c.1800-c.1850; D.Laven History of Civilisation: Transnational or Postimperial? Some Iberian Perspectives (1870-1930); X-M.Nunez Rising Like a Phoenix...The Renaissance of National History Writing in Germany and Britain since the 1980s; S.Berger Myth in the Writing of European History; J.Ifversen The Nation, Progress, and European Identity in The Rise of Modern Europe; J.L.Harvey Notes Index