I am an expert in the field of nationalism and nation-building. In 2025, I published Nationalism: A World History (Princeton University Press), which is the first global overview of the rise and evolution of nationalism and the creation of new nation-states. Its chapters also show how nationalism fundamentally influenced the everyday life and physical environment of people around the world. The book has been translated into Dutch, Spanish, Romanian and Bulgarian. At the start of my career, my research was focused on Spanish political and cultural 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. The last few years I have published several edited volumes and special issues on the construction of national identities at world, the historiography of nationalism, nation-branding, regionalist movements in Europe, and colonial soldiers. As a specialist of both nationalism and Spanish politics and culture, I regularly present my views on current affairs in the media.

More information about Eric Storm

Profile

I am a senior lecturer modern European history. My main field of research is the global history of nationalism. In addition, I have published extensively on the construction of regional identities in Europe, while starting my career as a specialist in Spanish cultural and political history of the 19^th and 20^th century. I have lectured Modern History at the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, the Universiteit van Amsterdam, University College Utrecht and Leiden University, and have been a visiting scholar at the Faculty of Political Science and Sociology, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, the Faculty of History, Oxford University and the Department of Global History, Freie Universität Berlin.

Hours

By appointment.

Research

In 2025, I published Nationalism: A World History (Princeton University Press; translated into Dutch, Spanish, Romanian and Bulgarian), the first serious overview of the global rise and evolution of nationalism from the early modern period until the present. In the book I examine the rise of new nation-states and the evolution of national citizenship. I also chart the impact of nationalism on high culture, the social sciences and the humanities, mass culture, cooking and the physical environment in almost all parts of the world. I also co-edited (with Stefan Berger) Writing the History of Nationalism (Bloomsbury 2019; translated into Korean in 2023) and (with Joep Leerssen) World Fairs and the Global Moulding of National Identities: International Exhibitions as Cultural Platforms, 1851–1958 (Brill 2022). My interest in nationalism dates back from my PhD research on Spanish political thought, for which I examined the national commemoration of Don Quixote in 1905. Over the last few decades I published several articles and chapters on Spanish nationalism, dealing with its impact on tourism, architecture, cuisine, national commemorations and canonization processes.

In addition, I published widely on the construction of regional identities in Europe. With a NWO Veni-grant I studied the rise and demise of cultural regionalism in France, Germany and Spain, resulting in The Culture of Regionalism: Art, Architecture and International Exhibitions, 1890-1939 (Manchester University Press 2010; Spanish translation 2019). In this monograph, I argue that regionalism was not so much the consequence of a growing self-awareness of provincial elites, but an innovative international trend that originated with intellectuals with a strong cosmopolitan outlook. In addition, I co-edited (with Joost Augusteijn) Region and State in Nineteenth-Century Europe: Nation-Building, Regional Identities and Separatism (Palgrave 2012) and (with Xosé-Manoel Núñez Seixas) Regionalism and Modern Europe: Identity Construction and Movements from 1890 to the Present (Bloomsbury 2019).

My studies on modern Spanish history generally have a strong comparative perspective. Among my main publications in this field are La perspectiva del progreso. Pensamiento politico en la España del cambio del siglo (Biblioteca Nueva 2001; Dutch original 1999), The Discovery of El Greco: The Nationalization of Culture Versus the Rise of Modern Art (Liverpool University Press 2016; Dutch original 2006, Spanish translation 2011) and the edited volume (with Raymond Fagel), Het land van Don Quichot. De Spanjaarden en hun Geschiedenis (Athenaeum 2012).

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.

Grants and awards

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

Key publications

• Eric Storm and Alejandro Quiroga, ‘Selling the Fatherland: Spanish Nation Branding and Soft Power in the Twentieth Century’ special issue European Review of History 32-2 (2025) 139-158.
• Eric Storm, ‘The Global Vernacularisation of Regional Identities: Cultural Isomorphism at World Fairs, 1851-1939’ in: Giulia Bruna, Marguérite Corporaal, Chris Cusack, Sophie van Os and Anneloek Scholten eds., Transnational Representations of the Region, 1840-1940 (Nijmegen: Radboud University Press 2025).
• Eric Storm, Nationalism: A World History (Princeton University Press 2024).
• Eric Storm, ‘The Rise of the Nation‐State During the Age of Revolution: Revisiting the Debate on the Roots of Nations and Nationalism’, Nations and Nationalism 28-4 (2022) 1137-1151.
• Joep Leerssen and Eric Storm eds., World Fairs and the Global Moulding of National Identities: International Exhibitions as Cultural Platforms, 1851–1958 (Leiden: Brill 2022).
• Eric Storm, ‘When Did Nationalism Become Banal? The Nationalization of the Domestic Sphere in Spain’, European History Quarterly 50-2 (2020) 204-225.
• Eric Storm and Maarten Vanginderachter, eds., ‘Questioning the Wilsonian Moment: the Role of Ethnicity and Nationalism in the Dissolution of European Empires from the Belle Époque through the First World War’ special issue European Review of History 26-5 (2019) 747-756.
• 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