From Nowhere to Somewhere

Nationalism has long been the subject of analysis and debate. Has it been a positive or negative factor in human development? Since nationalism first took hold in Europe in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, scholars have developed various theories and historical narratives to describe this worldwide ideological and political phenomenon. But how does nationalism work? How do certain groups of people become nationalities? What concrete mechanisms have been adopted by governments and/or intellectual leaders to transform often disparate individuals into groups who become conscious of their common identity and distinctiveness from others? No new theory of nationalism is put forth in From Nowhere to Somewhere. Rather, in a memoiristic and clearly personal manner, the text provides a kind of nuts-and-bolts guide to nationality-building. It focuses on developments during the last half century among Carpatho-Rusyns, or Ruthenians, a numerically mid-sized stateless people living in the heart of Europe and among the diaspora it has spawned in the United States. To paraphrase the most famous person of Carpatho-Rusyn ancestry, Andy Warhol, the reader of this book will discover how Carpatho Rusyns, a previously unknown people from nowhere, have become recognized and can now be found somewhere.