A01=Talitha Ilacqua
Augustin Chaho
Author_Talitha Ilacqua
Bertsolaritza
Category=NHD
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eq_history
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eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
First Carlist War
French Basque country
French Revolution
Napoleonic Wars
nationalism
philology
regionalism
tourism
tourist gaze
travel writing
Product details
- ISBN 9781526194886
- Weight: 322g
- Dimensions: 140 x 216mm
- Publication Date: 20 Jan 2026
- Publisher: Manchester University Press
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Paperback
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This book explores the process by which the French Basque country acquired a folkloric regional identity in the long nineteenth century. It argues that, despite its origins in pre-modern customs, this stereotypical identity was invented as part of France’s process of nation-building. The abolition of privileges in 1789 prompted a new interest in local culture as the defining feature of provincial France, shaping the transition from the pre-‘modern’ province to the ‘modern’ region. The relationship between the region and the nation, however, was difficult. Regional culture favoured the integration of the French Basque provinces into the French nation-state but also challenged the authority of the central state. As a result, Basque region-building reveals the strengths and weaknesses of the unitary model of French nationhood, in the nineteenth century as well as today.
Talitha Ilacqua is Career Development Fellow in Modern European History at Durham University
