"In this collection of original essays Denis Lacorne and Tony Judt have brought together ten experts from North America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, and Israel to address the legal, communal, historical and political dimensions of this "language question" in modern and modernizing societies. Ranging from the conflict between French and Occitan in the construction of modern France to the future of language use on the Internet, Language, Nation, and State contributes to some of the most contentious debates of our time: What are the sources of ethnic conflict? Is multiculturalism a solution to the problems of linguistic minorities? Are there any models of successful multilingual and stable societies? The authors have no single answer to propose to these questions but no one with an interest in them - which is to say no one actively concerned with the dilemmas of our contemporary world - can ignore the issues raised in this book."--BOOK JACKET.