Writing National Histories examines comparatively how the writing of history by individuals and groups, historians, politicians and journalists, has been used to 'legitimate' the nation-state, focusing on the nation-building of the nineteenth century and the subsequent struggle to defend the nation-state against socialist, communist and Catholic internationalism in the modern era.

Stefan Berger is Senior Lecturer in German history at the University of Wales, Cardiff, where Mark Donovan lectures in Italian politics and Kevin Passmore lectures in modern European history.

PART I Comparative perspectives 1 Apologias for the nation-state in Western Europe since 1800 2 Nationalism and historiography, 1789-1996: the German example in historical perspective 3 Literature, liberty and life of the nation: British historiography from Macaulay to Trevelyan PART II The age of bourgeois revolution 4 History as a principle of legitimation in France (1820-48) 5 National unification and narrative unity: the case of Ranke's German History 6 Unity and confederation in the Italian Risorgimento: the case of Carlo Cattaneo PART III The age of the masses 7 Taine and the nation-state 8 'Prussians in a good sense': German historians as critics of Prussian conservatism, 1890-1920 9 The search for a 'national' history: Italian historiographical trends following unification PART IV Liberal democracy and antifascism (1918-45) 10 Marc Bloch as a critic of historiographical nationalism in the interwar years 11 From antifascist to Volkshistoriker: demos and ethnos in the political thought of Fritz Rörig, 1921-45 12 Reclaiming Italy? Antifascist historians and history in Justice and Liberty PART V Fascist historiography and the nation-state 13 Right-wing historiographical models in France, 1918-45 14 German historiography under National Socialism: dreams of a powerful nation-state and German Volkstum come true 15 Gioacchino Volpe and fascist historiography in Italy PART VI The Cold War years 203 16 Rebuilding France: Gaullist historiography, the rise-fall myth and French identity (1945-58) 17 Dividing the past, defining the present: historians and national identity in the two Germanies 18 A neglected question: Historians and the Italian national state (1945-95) PART VII Contemporary trends 19 Historians and the nation in contemporary France 20 Historians and the search for national identity in the reunified Germany 21 Historians and the 'First Republic' PART VIII Conclusion 22 Historians and the nation-state: some conclusions