Eric Hobsbawm falls into the historicist and modernist school of nationalism, in that he asserts that nations and nationalism are products of modernity and have been created as means to political and economic ends. Many of the traditions which we think of as very ancient in their origins were not in fact sanctioned by long usage over the centuries, but were invented comparatively recently. Hobsbawm presents examples of this process of invention like the creation of Welsh and Scottish 'national culture '.and the attempts by radical movements to develop counter-traditions of their own. It addresses the complex interaction of past and present, bringing together historians and anthropologists in a fascinating study of ritual and symbolism