I am a specialist in Spanish history of the 19th and 20th centuries. I also conducted extensive research into the construction of regional identities in France, Spain and Germany between 1890 and 1940. At present, I mainly publish about nationalization processes in a comparative perspective. I focus on high culture (art, architecture) and more banal forms of nationalism (tourism, world fairs, domestic sphere, cuisine). The last few years I have edited three books on regional movements in Europe, on the historiography of nationalism and on the construction of national identities at world fairs. My latest project is the publication of Nationalism: A World History (Princeton University Press 2024), which has already been translated into Dutch (published by Alfabet Uitgevers). The book will also appear in Spanish (with Crítica). As an expert on both nationalism and Spanish politics and culture, I regularly present my views on current affairs in the media.

More information about Eric Storm

I am a specialist in Spanish history of the 19th and 20th centuries. I also conducted extensive research into the construction of regional identities in France, Spain and Germany between 1890 and 1940. At present, I mainly publish about nationalization processes in a comparative perspective. I focus on high culture (art, architecture) and more banal forms of nationalism (tourism, world fairs, domestic sphere, cuisine). I recently edited two volumes on regionalism in Europe and one on historical approaches to nationalism. As an expert in Spanish culture and politics, I regularly present my views on current affairs in the media.

Hours

By appointment.

Research

I am a recognized specialist of Spanish history in the 19th and 20th centuries and one of the internationally leading scholars on the history of regionalism. Recently, I have become fascinated by the construction of national identities, especially through all kinds of banal forms.

My dissertation dealt with the political debates among intellectuals and politicians in Spain in the period 1890-1914 and has been translated into Spanish as La perspectiva del progreso. Pensamiento politico en la España del cambio de siglo (2001). As a Grotius-fellow at University of Amsterdam I investigated how the rediscovery of the mannerist painter El Greco was largely caused by a nationalist reinterpretation of the European (artistic) past, and that the ‘nationalisation’ of his oeuvre from about the 1860s was initiated by foreign travellers, critics and historians. In my second post-doc project (Veni-grant) I systematically compared the rise, peak and demise of the culture of regionalism in France, Germany and Spain between 1890 and 1939. In The Culture of Regionalism (Manchester University Press 2010) I argue that regionalism should not be seen as the consequence of a growing self-awareness of provincial elites, but as an innovative international trend that origin ated wit h highly modern, national elites with a strong cosmopolitan outlook. Currently I am involved in various international research projects and focus on banal nationalism, regional identity construction, tourism and world fairs.

My latest major publication is Nationalism: A World History (Princeton University Press 2024) in which I examine the global rise and evolution of nationalism from the early modern period until the present. The book shows that nationalism was a global phenomenon and that over time it has infused our everyday life. Although nation-states are a recent (eighteenth-century) invention and national cultures only began to be created in the early nineteenth century, the existence of a world of nation-states where everyone should be loyal to their own nation is now fully taken for granted.

Fields of interest

• Nationalism and Nation-Building
• ​Regionalism
• Spanish History since 1808
• History of Tourism
• European Cultural History
• Global history of nationalism

Teaching activities and supervision

• I give lectures on European History since 1789. Most of my seminars focus on the construction of regional and national identities and banal forms of nationalism. The geographical scope is mostly Europe, but I am also interested in similar processes elsewhere.
• I supervise BA and MA thesis dealing with the history of Spain, France and Italy since about 1800 and also am willing to consider research projects on nationalism and regionalism.

Curriculum Vitae

Education:

1985-1991 History at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands.
1993-1999 PhD at the University of Groningen. One year stay in Madrid.

Academic Positions:

1999-2000 Assistant professor at the History Department, University Groningen.
2000-2002 Grotius fellow at the History Department, University of Amsterdam.
2000-2001 Visiting researcher at the Faculty of Political Science and Sociology, University Complutense, Madrid.
2002-2004 Research fellow (NWO Veni scholarship) at the History Department, University of Amsterdam.
2004-now Assistant/Associate professor at the History Department, Leiden University, the Netherlands (tenured).
2007-2008 Research Fellow at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study.
2015 Visiting Fellow Modern European History Research Centre, Faculty of History, Oxford University.
2019-20 Visiting Scholar Global History, Friedrich Meinecke Institute, Freie Universität Berlin.

Grants and awards

• Grotius Fellow, 2000-2002
• NWO VENI Scholarship, 2002-2007

Key publications

• Stefan Berger and Eric Storm eds., Writing the History of Nationalism (London: Bloomsbury 2019).
• Eric Storm, La construcción de identidades regionales en España, Francia y Alemania, 1890-1939 (transl. José Cuni; Madrid: Ediciones Complutense 2019).
• Xosé M. Núñez Seixas and Eric Storm eds., Regionalism in Modern Europe: Identity Construction and Movements From 1890 to the Present Day (London: Bloomsbury 2019).
• Eric Storm, ‘A New Dawn in Nationalism Studies? Some Fresh Incentives to Overcome Historiographical Nationalism: Review Article’, European History Quarterly (2018) 113-130.
• Eric Storm, ‘La nacionalización del hogar en España’, Journal of Iberian and Latin American Studies 23-2 (2017) 255-275.
• Eric Storm, ‘The Nationalisation of the Domestic Sphere’, Nations and Nationalism (2017) 173-193.
• Eric Storm, ‘Art History’ in: Diana Mishkova and Balázs Trencsényi eds., European Regions and Boundaries: A Conceptual History (Oxford and New York: Berghahn 2017) 510-542.
• Eric Storm, The Discovery of El Greco: The Nationalization of Culture versus the Rise of Modern Art, 1860-1914 (transl. from Dutch; Eastborne: Sussex Academic Press 2016).
• Eric Storm and Ali al-Tuma eds., Colonial Soldiers in Europe, 1914-1945: ‘Aliens in Uniform’ in Wartime Societies (Oxford and New York: Routledge 2016).
• Eric Storm, ‘Overcoming Methodological Nationalism in Nationalism Studies: The Impact of Tourism on the Construction and Diffusion of National and Regional Identities’, History Compass 12, 4 (2014) 361-373.
• Eric Storm, ‘Una España más española. La influencia del turismo en la imagen nacional’ in: Javier Moreno Luzón y Xosé-Manoel Núñez Seixas eds., Ser españoles. Imaginarios nacionalistas en el siglo XX (Barcelona: RBA 2013) 530-560.
• Joost Augusteijn and Eric Storm eds., Region and State in Nineteenth-Century Europe: Nation-building, regional identities and separatism (Basingstoke: Palgrave 2012).
• Eric Storm, El descubrimiento del Greco: Nacionalismo y arte moderno, 1860-1914 (transl. José Cuni; Madrid: Centro de Estudios Europa Hispánica y Marcial Pons 2011).
• Eric Storm, The Culture of Regionalism: Art, Architecture and International Exhibitions in France, Germany and Spain, 1890-1939 (Manchester: Manchester University Press 2010).
• Eric Storm, La perspectiva del progreso. Pensamiento político en la España del cambio de siglo (1890-1914) (transl. José Cuni; Madrid: Biblioteca Nueva 2001).

Activities