As I did the readings for this week, one theme particularly stood out to me throughout Conrad\u2019s chapters: that of the nation and national identity. Focusing on Germany, he emphasises that German history and national identity were not made purely within the state, but greatly influenced by external factors, foreign events and transnational flows. By looking at Polish and Chinese labour movements and flows, he demonstrates how they were not only viewed as a threat to German national identity, but how they impacted the nation and the way it was perceived. Conrad adds an interesting and important perspective regarding the dynamics of nationalism and national history. He places it in a global context and recognises the transnational aspects and influences which I do not think are recognised enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The ideas of the nation and national identity hold a lot of power. Demonstrated through the chapters on the reception and impact of the Polish and Chinese workers, it is evident that they are very important and highly valued. The presence of these foreign people and cultures immediately was seen to threaten and plague German national identity and the nation. Subsequently, policies of \u2018Germanisation\u2019 were undertaken, particularly towards the Poles: everyone had to be moulded to fit what was viewed as \u2018German\u2019, and lose their former nationality and culture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But what exactly is \u2018German\u2019? It is becoming increasingly clear to me just how connected nations and cultures are, and how they are all influenced and shaped by each other. Therefore, what is viewed as \u2018German\u2019 and as part of German national identity is more of a compound of many foreign influences and transnational connections. These connections and ties are what build up and shape something in to what it is. It is almost paradoxical to seek to transform these Polish or Chinese workers, when they themselves contributed to consolidating German national identity. Although their presence led to stronger borders, immigration control, and strengthening of both German and their own identity, they too are part of and influence the German nation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Drawing on Benedict Anderson, Conrad highlights how the nation is a product of relationships, a social construct and an imagined community. The loyalty to the nation and strength of this bond throughout late modern history has been remarkably strong. This theme (and the often accompanying racism) still runs strongly today. Much of the Brexit campaign built upon the \u2018threat\u2019 of immigrants including in taking British jobs, and the era of Trump\u2019s Presidency in the U.S. was laden with anti-immigrant policies and racism, and slogans such as \u2018Make America Great Again\u2019. Even in such diverse and geographically expansive countries, there tends to be a singular, strong, national identity formed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I will end this blog post with a few further questions. Namely, why are the nation and national identity so important to people? Does their strength do more harm than good? And why has it always remained so highly valued in a world that is increasingly connected?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As I did the readings for this week, one theme particularly stood out to me throughout Conrad\u2019s chapters: that of the nation and national identity. Focusing on Germany, he emphasises that German history and national identity were not made purely<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5wNtZ-DA","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/doing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/doing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/doing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/doing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/doing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2454"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/doing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2454\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2455,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/doing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2454\/revisions\/2455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/doing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/doing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/doing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}