Nairn rejected the view of nationalist movements, purveyed by many thinkers on the liberal and Marxist left, as residues of tribal atavism. Rather, he understood national identities as distinctively modern expressions of an enduring human need.
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in: " Little Scotlander - Tom Nairn's nationalism is stuck in the past, argues John Gray. In his desire to forecast the collapse of the union he seems scarcely to have noticed the country Britain has become, New Statesman, 24 January 2000