Now It's All About Radical Nationalism (837-844)

Nationalism is this ever changing concept adopted by new countries, new classes, and now, new political parties: "during the first half of the nineteenth century, nationalism had been associated with the left. Now it was more often invoked by the right and linked to xenophobia in general and anti-Semitism in particular" (838). In France, this politicized anti-Semitism was explained by édouard Drumont (who believed that the root of all of France's problems was the Jews) and in 1894 "exploded with the Dreyfus Affair, a pivotal political moment in the life of the French Republic" (838). The key consequence of the Dreyfus Affair was the separation of the church and the state in France. This may sound strange, but when reading about the fact that there was a lot of anti-semitism in France- I felt very uneasy because I am Jewish and I am French- so there is this inherent contradiction in my heritage. I don't like that anti-Semitism was playing such a large role in French culture and politics (for example- the mayor of Vienna was elected on an anti-Semitic platform). In general, it appears that this nationalism was also adopted in a lot of radical situations- the whole idea of Zionism was a "modern nationalism movement" where the Jews wanted to unite and build a separate Jewish homeland outside of Europe (840).

In Britain, the first working-class movements were definitely moderate and the political system was stable; however, over time there appeared to be an "increasingly militant tenor in British politics," which was shown by the radical action taken by industrial militants, coal and rail workers, and women suffragists (844). Also, in Ireland in the 1880s, a modern nationalist party (the Irish Parliamentary Party) "had begun to make substantial gains through the legislative process" but as soon as more radical organizers took control- they took to militant action. 

Germany, which was lead by the machiavellian Bismarck until 1890, was ever changing as well. At first, "Bismarck sought to create the centralizing institutions of a modern nation-state while safeguarding the privileges of Germany's traditional elites, including a dominant role for Prussia (841). Bismarck created a bicameral parliament where the conservative upper house counterbalanced the democratic lower house elected through universal male suffrage. Later, Bismarck went SUPER LIBERAL and basically went down an anti-catholic campaign in Prussia where he "passed laws that imprisoned priests for political sermons, banned Jesuits from Prussia, and curbed the church's control over education" (842). This anti-catholic campaign failed, and after a bad economic crisis- Bismarck started to take a more conservative approach and he defended the "Christian moral order" (843). Bismarck forbade the Social Democrats from assembling or distributing their literature and therefore the SPD was forced to become a clandestine organization. Not all was bad, Bismarck started a bunch of social reforms: "workers were guaranteed sickness and accident insurance, rigorous factory inspection, limited working hours for women and children, etc..." (843). Basically, Bismarck changed his opinion based on the public and he resigned in 1890!!