Kohn's tour of countries that became nations takes him to Eastern Europe in the latest lag of his book (pages 518-543). Having some Polish heritage, but knowing next to nothing about the country, this has made these pages of Kohn's some of the most interesting for me.
However, by Kohn's assessment, things didn't really work out for Poland. Unlike nations like Italy or Greece or Sweden, it didn't quite awaken as a nation just yet. Instead, it weakened itself through its stirring and was ultimately swallowed up by Russia and Prussia only to emerge again later on.
Through implication while he's discussing Hungary, Kohn notes that things didn't work out for that country either because its nobility regarded itself as the nation and discounted those of lesser rank. But as far as I can tell that wasn't the case with Poland. If anything, actually, Poland's problem during this century of national awakenings was trying too hard and aiming too high.
Again, while discussing Hungary, Kohn mentions that the reason that nation and Poland failed to launch into a true era of nationalism in the eighteenth century is that they both put too much stock in past achievements.
Sure, I can see why trying to revive the past could lead to ruin. Conditions and variables change and more often than not can't be reset to just where they were when great things were done. But what bothers me is that Kohn doesn't give these two countries more depth of coverage.
Concentrating on Poland or Hungary's not his purpose in writing about nationalism so broadly, but a close study of some failures might have made all of the successes he's written about truly stand out.
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