1. The Nation as an Abstract Community -- 2. National Formation in Theory -- 3. Marx and Engels: 'Seeing through the Veil'? -- 4. Durkheim and Weber: The Antinomies of Abstract Nationalism -- 5. Nation Formation and the Janus Faces of History: A Critique of Marxism -- 6. Nation Formation and the 'Rise of the Cultural': A Critique of Liberal Sociology -- 7. Nation Formation and the Instituting State: A Critique of Structuration -- 8. Themes for a Theory of the Nation