Stories about border crossers illegal aliens refugees that regularly appear in the press
everywhere point to the crucial role national identity plays in human beings' lives today. The
National Habitus seeks to understand how and why national belonging became so central to a
person's identity and sense of identity. Centered on the acquisition of the national habitus
the process that transforms subjects into citizens when a state becomes a nation-state the
book examines this transformation at the individual level in the case of nineteenth century
France. Literary texts serve as primary material in this study of national belonging because
as Germaine de Staël pointed out long ago literature has the unique ability to provide access
to inner feelings. The term habitus in the title of this book signals a departure from
traditional approaches to nationalism a break with the criteria of language race and
ethnicity typically used to examine it. It is grounded instead in a sociology that deals with
the subjective dimension of life and is best exemplified by the works of Norbert Elias
(1897-1990) and Pierre Bourdieu (1931-2002) two sociologists who approach belief systems like
nationalism from a historical instead of an ethical vantage point. By distinguishing between
two groups of major French writers three who experienced the 1789 Revolution firsthand as
adults (Olympe de Gouges François René de Chateaubriand and Germaine de Staël) and three who
did not (Stendhal Prosper Mérimée and George Sand) the book captures evolving understandings
of the nation as well as thoughts and emotions associated with national belonging over time.
Le Hir shows that although none of these writers is typically associated with nationalism all
of them were actually affected by the process of nationalization of feelings thoughts and
habits irrespective of aesthetic preferences social class or political views. By the end of
the nineteenth century they had learned to feel and view themselves as French nationals they
all exhibited the characteristic features of the national habitus: love of their own nation
distrust and or hatred of other nations. By underscoring the dual contradictory nature of the
national habitus the book highlights the limitations nation-based identities impose on the
prospect for peace.
