Masculinities and the Nation in the Modern World ─ Between Hegemony and Marginalization

Masculinities and the Nation in the Modern World provides fresh perspectives on the connections between gender and the nation by focusing on the role of masculinities in various processes of nation-building in the modern world between the early nineteenth century and the 1960s. This edited volume calls attention to the myriad ways in which nationalized hegemonic masculinities were produced and perpetuated in Western societies by adding a new analytical dimension by suggesting that "marginal" white masculinities frequently constituted an in-between category that helped strengthen dominant ideals of gendered nationalism. Masculinities and the Nation in the Modern World also highlights the ambiguities of hegemonic masculinities regarding the nation in transnational contexts created by colonialism, imperialism, and their legacies. Although transnational processes of exchange, translation, and adaptation allowed Western nations to subdue and marginalize non-Western and non-white masculinities, a closer look at these processes reveals how marginalized men could not only retain agency vis-a-vis Western nation-building efforts but also creatively adapt Western nationalism in their attempts to construct their own gendered "imagined communities."

Pablo Dominguez Andersen works as an online journalist and digital content strategist in Berlin, Germany.

Simon Wendt is Assistant Professor of American Studies at the University of Frankfurt, Germany.