John Alexander Armstrong

"My first publications on nationalism contained extended references to religion ... Subsequent familiarity with the impressive sociological work by Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann enabled me to show more clearly how nationalism, as a type of identity, 'shelters the individual from ultimate terror', that is, death as 'the mostterrifying breakdown of identity'. To a believer such as myself, universal religions rematin more satisfying than nationalism. But ... in a secularized world, reinforcing combinations of national and religious identity occur frequently. [The] conviction that no particular nation is 'premoridal' but that all originated from human agency at specific times and places, is widely held by nationalism specialists, Steven Grosby being a notable exception. In general, I share this consensus, while stipulating that nations, but no particular nation of the modern type, and certainly not nationalism existed before the 16th century. Such issues of timing and agency are very important to my theory, for my methodological preference is for intensive employment of historical data over the longue duree. I have consistently rejected 'evolutionary theory' and its biological ontology, and even structural functionalism insofar as its organic model tends toreject human agency. Instead, I favour multifactorial interpretations that leave a considerable scope to individual and group initiatives. The pre-modern social formations that I treat in Nations before Nationalism (1982) and elsewhere ... require an national ideas. Fundamental themes are myth, symbol, and communication, especially as they relate to bouundary mechanisms of a psychological rather than territorial nature."

Myth and Symbolism Theory of Nationalism, John A. Armstrong, 2001.

John Alexander Armstrong Jr. (1922-2010) was Professor Emeritus of Political Science at University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Born in St. Augustine, Florida on 4th of May, 1922, he entered the University of Chicago at the age of 20 where he received both degrees of Banchelar and Master. The date of his graduation was actually delayed by his enlistment in U.S. Army in Belgium during WWII from 1944 to 1945, while such experience appears to have certain impacts upon the direction of his academic research in nationalism of Europe afterwards.

He entered Columbia University for further study in 1950 and received Ph.D three years later.

His earlier works focus on nationalism and ideologies in East Europe, especially Ukraine and Russia during 1950s and 1960s. The most influential work of his is the path-breaking Nations before Nationalism (1982) which firstly systematically expressed the longue duree of ethnic identity and has inspired theorists of ethnosymbolism including Anthony D. Smith.