This book investigates the concept of the heroic, questions what it is that makes the national hero an indispensable appendage to any possible interpretation of national identity, and asks why scholars stop short before coming to terms with this elusive phenomenon. It finds answers by following heroic traditions in Scotland, Norway and Lithuania from the early modern period to the twentieth century. The book argues that heroic traditions - prevailing trends in situating heroes in national history - owe much to the early modern state. Both national heroes and the nation state had been conceived with a similar moral political mindset that looked for new ways to identify sources for commonality. The confluence of political theory and Realpolitik attested to three classical types of polities, i.e. civitas popularis (democracy), regnum (kingship), and optimatium (aristocracy), as found at that time in Scotland, Norway and Lithuania respectively. The author shows the varied impact these patterns had on heroic traditions. The long record of national heroes in Scotland is explained as a vestige of the legacy of civic humanism, the continuing traditions of the heroic king-lines in Norway are seen as a result of long-standing absolutism, while the belated arrival of national heroes in Lithuania is excused by the country's aristocratic if at times oligarchic past.

This is the first systematic, historical inquiry into the emergence of "victim consciousness" (higaisha ishiki) as an essential component of Japanese pacifist national identity after World War II. In his meticulously crafted narrative and analysis, the author reveals how postwar Japanese elites and American occupying authorities collaborated to structure the parameters of remembrance of the war, including the notion that the emperor and his people had been betrayed and duped by militarists. He goes on to explain the Japanese reliance on victim consciousness through a discussion of the ban-the-bomb movement of the mid-1950s, which raised the prominence of Hiroshima as an archetype of war victimhood and brought about the selective focus on Japanese war victimhood; the political strategies of three self-defined war victim groups (A-bomb victims, repatriates, and dispossessed landlords) to gain state compensation and hence valorization of their war victim experiences; shifting textbook narratives that reflected contemporary attitudes and structured future generations' understanding of the war; and three classic antiwar novels and films that contributed to the shaping of a "sentimental humanism" that continues to leave a strong imprint on the collective Japanese conscience.

From the barbarian epics to the ethnographic museums, from the national languages to emblematic landscapes or typical costumes, this book retraces the cultural fabrication of the European nations. National identities are not facts of nature, but constructions.

Globalisation and Historiography of National Leaders: Symbolic Representations in School Textbooks, the 18th book in the 24-volume book series Globalisation, Comparative Education and Policy Research, explores the interrelationship between ideology, national identity, national history and historical heroes, setting it in a global context. Based on this focus, the chapters represent hand-picked scholarly research on major discourses in the field of history textbooks and symbolic representations of national heroes, and draw upon recent studies in the areas of globalisation, history textbooks, and national leaders.A number of researchers have written on the importance of teaching national history in order to foster national identity and a sense of belonging to a certain society, state, and people among the younger generation. Some nations prefer to create national heroes out of their political leaders who are still in power, and whose lives and reputation are portrayed as being eminently spotless. Using diverse comparative education paradigms from critical theory, social semiotics, and historical-comparative research, the authors analyse the unpacking of the ideological agenda hidden behind the choice and lionization (or silencing) of the preferred national heroes. They provide an informed critique of various historical narratives depicting national leaders and national heroes.The book provides an easily accessible, practical yet scholarly source of information on international concerns in the field of globalisation, history education and policy research. Offering an essential sourcebook of ideas for researchers, history educators, practitioners and policymakers in the fields of globalisation and history education, it also provides a timely overview of current changes in politically correct history education narratives in history textbooks.

Looks at questions about national identity, sex roles, etc., and the way they were affected by the presence of U.S. servicemen in W.W.II.___

Interest in the study of national identity as a collective phenomenon is a growing concern among the social and political sciences. This book addresses the scholarly interest in examining the origins of ideologies and social practices that give historical meaning, cohesion and uniqueness to modern national communities. It focuses on the various routes taken towards the construction of cultural authenticity as an inspirational purpose of nation-building and reveals the diversity of the themes, practices and symbols used to encourage self-identification and communality. Among the techniques explored are the dramatization of suffering and tragedy, the exaltation of heroes and deeds, the evocation of landscape, nature and the arts and the delimitation of collective values to be pursued during reconstruction in post-war periods.