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norbert elias

Essays II
On Civilising Processes, State Formation
and National Identity

The Collected Works of Norbert Elias volume 15

Edited by Richard Kilminster and Stephen Mennell

university college dublin press

Preas Choliste Ollscoile Bhaile tha Cliath
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First published 2008

by University College Dublin Press
as volume 15 of the Collected Works of Norbert Elias
Norbert Elias Foundation, Amsterdam, 2008

ISBN 978-1-906359-02-7

University College Dublin Press

Newman House, 86 St Stephens Green
Dublin 2, Ireland
www.ucdpress.ie

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,

stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise,
without the prior permission of the publisher

Cataloguing in Publication data available from the British Library

Typeset in Ireland in Baskerville by Elaine Burberry

Designed by Lyn Davies
Printed in England on acid-free paper
by MPG Books Ltd, Bodmin, Cornwall
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contents

Norbert Elias, 18971990 vii

Note on the text xi

1 Civilisation 3
2 What I mean by civilisation: reply to Hans Peter Duerr 8
3 The civilising of parents 14
4 Lespace priv: private space or private room? 41
5 The structure of development of standards of behaviour 52
6 Technisation and civilisation 57
7 Power and civilisation 93
8 Processes of state formation and nation building 105
9 Towards a theory of communities 119
10 Afterword to Meike Behrmann and Carmine Abate, Die Germanesi 155
11 Inquest on German Jewry 161
12 The charismatic ruler 164
13 Gentlemen and tarpaulins 170
14 Drake and Doughty: a paradigmatic case study 196
15 Public opinion in Britain 215
16 National peculiarities of British public opinion 230
17 Fear of death 256
18 Has hope a future? 267

Textual variants 270

Bibliography 273
Index 279