Nationalism and Popular Culture

How do nations come to shape our collective imagination so profoundly? This book argues that the power of national identity and national belonging stems, in part, from the ways in which nationalism is embedded in popular culture.

Comprised of chapters covering a wide range of cases from both the Global North and Global South (including Argentina, Australia, Canada, Europe, Israel, Pakistan, and the United States), the text unpacks the connections between nationalism and film, television, music, and other facets of everyday culture. In doing so, it demonstrates that popular culture can help us understand why and how nationhood has become so deeply entrenched in modern society.

This book will be of interest to scholars of political science, nationalism, sociology, history, media studies, and cultural studies.

Tim Nieguth is Associate Professor of Political Science at Laurentian University. His research centres on nationalism, popular culture, and state apologies; his work has been published in the Canadian Journal of Political Science, Nations & Nationalism, and Space & Polity, among others. Dr. Nieguth is the editor of The Politics of Popular Culture and co-editor of Investigating Shrek.