Cosmopolitisme et patriotisme au temps des révolutions/Cosmopolitism and Patriotism in the Revolutionary Age
Revolutions may have universal objectives and speak the language of the rights of man, but they appear to produce an upsurge of nationalist sentiment and a unique sense of national identity. Revolutionaries often appear to believe that there is something unique about their revolution that is theirs and theirs alone, going so far as to proclaim that only those who are of their nation can truly understand or identify with the revolutionary cause. A global approach to revolutionary history allows us to overcome the narrowness of such national perceptions; indeed, it has been suggested that global history can provide the ultimate cure for nationalism. While a joint session looks at a comparison of revolutionary nationalisms, this workshop of the International Commission investigates the role of a wide variety of cosmopolitan ideas and practices circulating transnationally and transregionally at moments of revolutionary upheaval. Such revolutionary cosmopolitanism constitutes an ideological repertoire of its own and became an important reference at later revolutionary moments looking back into a heritage to be mobilized.