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The French Ideology? Louis Dumont and the German Conception of the Nation
Author(s) -
Llobera Josep R.
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
nations and nationalism
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.655
H-Index - 44
eISSN - 1469-8129
pISSN - 1354-5078
DOI - 10.1111/j.1354-5078.1996.00193.x
Subject(s) - holism , german , ideology , individualism , modernity , nazism , sociology , sovereignty , intellectual history , period (music) , eugenics , law , epistemology , aesthetics , philosophy , political science , politics , linguistics
. This article examines the contribution of Louis Dumont to the study of German national ideology. In a series of essays over a ten‐year period in the 1980s Dumont aimed at providing a selective intellectual history of modern Germany, which in the final resort would account for the emergence of Nazi Germany. By focusing on factors such as the predominance of holism, the idea of universal sovereignty and the introverted individualism of the Reformation, Dumont believes that it is possible to uncover the dynamics of modernity in Germany. This development he contrasted with that of France, in which a non‐cultural definition of the nation prevailed and where holism was non‐dominant. The article concludes with a critique of Dumont's narrow version of intellectual history and with the suggestion that only a proper historical sociology of modern Germany can explain Nazism.