Few historical-political problems will have undergone a revolution in their treatment by historians and social scientists comparable to that suffered by nationalism in recent decades. Hence José Álvarez Junco dedicates the first chapter of this book to exposing current theories around nations and nationalisms and proposing some initial definitions of terms. He then goes on to discuss the most relevant national construction cases, both European (England, France, Germany, Italy, Russia and the Turkish Empire) and some European ex-colonies (United States and Latin America). In the third chapter he analyzes the Spanish case, which is given new light by explaining it in comparative terms. The Spanish identity, like any other, is a historical construction, product of multiple events and factors, some structural but mostly contingent. That is, there is nothing attributable to providential or mysterious designs, nor to a collective genius that has inhabited for millennia in the natives of the country. The book concludes with a chapter describing the construction of national identities that are alternatives to Spanish in the Iberian peninsula, starting with Portugal and following the cases of Catalan, Basque, Galician and Andalusian.