ABOUT THIS BOOK

An empirically grounded analysis of the repurposing of ancient and medieval European history in digital-age populism.

How was the Roman Empire invoked in Brexit Britain and in the United States during Donald Trump’s presidency, and to what purpose? And why is it critical to answer these kinds of questions? Heritage and Nationalism explores how people’s perceptions and experiences of the ancient past shape political identities in the digital age. It examines the multiple ways in which politicians, parties, and private citizens mobilize aspects of the Iron Age, Roman, and Medieval past of Britain and Europe to include or exclude others based on culture, religion, class, race, and ethnicity.

The book uses quantitative and qualitative methods to investigate how premodern periods are leveraged to support or oppose populist-nationalist arguments as part of social media discussions concerning Brexit, the Italian Election of 2018, and the US-Mexican border debate in the United States. Analyzing millions of tweets and Facebook posts, comments, and replies, this book is the first to use big data to answer questions about public engagement with the past and identity politics. The findings and conclusions revise and reframe the meaning of populist nationalism today and help to build a shared basis for the democratic engagement of citizens in public life in the future. The book offers a fascinating and unmissable read for anyone interested in how the past and its contemporary legacy, or heritage, influence our political thinking and feeling in a time of hyper-connectivity.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Chiara Bonacchi is a Chancellor’s Fellow in heritage, text, and data mining and a senior lecturer in heritage at the University of Edinburgh.

REVIEWS

This pioneering book reports on a large, data-intensive project about modern life: how important, it asked, are notions of the past – represented here by Iron Age, Roman and early medieval Europe – in affecting decisions in contemporary politics and society? ...We are encouraged, and challenged, in the perhaps surprising if nonetheless significant discovery that “experts” do matter when it comes to determining public information and emphasis.'
British Archaeology

‘This book represents an extraordinary contribution to the study of the complex interplays between heritage and nationalism. It proposes a novel approach based on the study of big data from social media, using a range of case studies that encompass from the Italian elections to Brexit Britain and Trump's border policies. A must-read for anyone interested in the uses of the past for present political discourses.’ – Manuel Fernández-Götz, University of Edinburgh

‘Bonacchi’s ground-breaking study provides important new approaches to understanding the politics of the past in the present through an exploration of populist nationalism in social media. In doing so, it not only makes a sustained argument regarding the value of social media big data for heritage research, but also shows how social media is transforming heritage and its futures.’ – Rodney Harrison, UCL

TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of figures List of tables Acknowledgements 1. Introduction 2. Using big data 3. Nationalism, populism and the past 4. Italian populism and the 2018 Election 5. The Brexit referendum 6. The ‘great wall’ of Trump 7. Experts, authority and social fabrics 8. Conclusion: a new perspective References Index