For decades comparative-historical social science has generated theories about the rise of national identity and its relationship to other basic dimensions of “modernization.” Typically, these theories have been considered in relation to single case studies or small-N comparisons. In recent years some scholars (e.g., Wimmer and Feinstein 2010; Roeder 2007) have made notable progress in developing approaches to critically interrogate theories about the rise and spread of nation-states through large-N comparisons. Getting systematically comparable data about the development of national identity, though, rather than nation-states, has been more challenging. This project aims to help close that gap.

Between June 2014 and September 2015, with support from the Fund for the Advancement of the Discipline of the American Sociological Association, we administered an expert survey focusing on European and post-Soviet cases.  This allowed us to generate estimates of the timing of the development of national identity in 48 polities, creating an index of the longevity of national identity. This website provides the resulting research papers as well as the data manual, raw survey data, and our survey form so that other researchers may make use of and build on these efforts.