John Alexander Armstrong Jr. (4 May 1922 – 2010) was

Professor Emeritus ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retirement, retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". ...

of political science at the

University of Wisconsin-Madison A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Uni ...

. Born in

St. Augustine, Florida St. Augustine ( ; ) is a city in and the county seat of St. Johns County, Florida, United States. Located 40 miles (64 km) south of downtown Jacksonville, the city is on the Atlantic coast of northeastern Florida. Founded in 1565 by Spani ...

on 4 May 1922, he entered

the University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, near the shore of Lake Michigan about fr ...

at age 20 where he received both bachelor's and master's degrees. However, the date of his graduation was delayed by his enlistment in the U.S. Army in Belgium during World War II, from 1944 to 1945. Such experience appears to have certain impacts upon the direction of his academic research on nationalism in Europe afterwards. He entered

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

for further study in 1950 and received a Ph.D. three years later. His earlier works focus on nationalism and ideologies in Europe, especially

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

and

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

during the 1950s and 1960s. The most influential work of his is the path-breaking ''Nations before Nationalism'' (1982) which firstly systematically expressed the ''

longue durée The (; ) is the French Annales School approach to the study of history. It gives priority to long-term historical structures over what François Simiand called ("evental history", the short-term time-scale that is the domain of the chronicler a ...

'' of ethnic identity and has inspired theorists of

ethnosymbolism Ethnosymbolism is a school of thought in the study of nationalism that stresses the importance of symbols, myths, values and traditions in the formation and persistence of the modern nation state. Developed as a critique of modernist theories ...

including Anthony D. Smith.

Selected publications

*(1962) ''Ideology, politics, and government in the Soviet Union: an introduction'',

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. Based in London, it is one of the largest libraries in the world, with an estimated collection of between 170 and 200 million items from multiple countries. As a legal deposit li ...

system no.: 011535915; 2nd ed. (1967)

system no.: 010265522; 4th ed. (1986), *''Ukrainian Nationalism 1939-1945'',

system no.: 011535954; 2nd ed., ; 3rd ed. (1990), *(1982) ''Nations before Nationalism'',

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Armstrong, John Alexander 1922 births 2010 deaths Scholars of nationalism American political scientists United States Army personnel of World War II University of Chicago alumni