This book proposes a cultural theory of national identity, and also studies nineteenth-century and post-war German identity formation.

Introduction: the nation in social science and history; 1. The construction of collective identity; 2. The encounter with Otherness; 3. The nation as invisible public: the patriotic code; 4. The nation as holy grail of the intellectuals: the transcendental code of Romanticism; 5. The people on the barricades: the democratic code; 6. The State-nation up to the founding of Empire: the code of 'Realpolitik'; 7. The national identity of the Germans; Epilogue.