Rethinking the End of Empire: Nationalism, State Formation, and Great Power Politics - Paperbackby Lynn M. Tesser (Author) Why did a nation state order emerge when nationalist activism was usually an elitist pursuit in the age of empire? Ordinary inhabitants and even most indigenous elites tended to possess religious, ethnic, or status based identities rather than national identities. Why then did the desires of a typically small number result in wave after wave of new states? The answer has customarily centered on the actions of "nationalists"