Nationalism, Religious Violence, and Hate Speech in Nineteenth-Century Western Europe

“This timely and engaging volume sheds new light on how, in nineteenth-century Europe, memories of intolerance towards the religious ‘other’ got instrumentalised to carry out conflicts over faith-related issues in the contemporary world. Focused on cases of past religious violence, most of them from the early modern period, it will be of great interest to scholars of religion and memory in modern history.” -Eveline G. Bouwers, Leibniz Institute of European History, Germany. “This extraordinary collection of essays on the memory of religious intolerance in the Europe of the nineteenth-century nationalisms deepens our knowledge about the “invention of tradition”. Placing the case-studies in the general processes of that age - the multiplication of public commemorations, the explosion of cultural wars, the clash between secularisation and confessionalization - it explores the multifaced political uses of the religious in the construction of national identities.” -Daniele Menozzi, Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, Italy. “This illuminating collection is a landmark in the comparative history of religion and nationalism. Consolidated figures join forces with promising young scholars to explore the multilayered socio-cultural dimensions of religious intolerance in the crucial period between c. 1850 and 1945, as well as some infamously violent outbursts. The book breaks new ground in the study of Hebrew, Catholic and Protestant Europe, and thus constitutes a fine example of transnational historiography.” -Gregorio Alonso, University of Leeds, United Kingdom.