Tom Nairn: A student perspective

Abstract

I first encountered Tom Nairn when I saw a copy of The Break-up of Britain (Nairn, 1977) at a friend's house after my undergraduate degree had concluded in 1994. Unintentionally, nationalism was a constant theme of my undergraduate studies. These studies were conducted in England and France in the historic context of European integration and within the framework of the early years of the Erasmus scheme for mass student mobility. As someone studying contemporary political history with a touch of continental political philosophy, plus French and Italian thrown into that mix, Tom's name kept cropping up in the books that I was reading. In other words, I knew of Tom's ideas before I met Tom himself. One of the ways in which I knew about Tom before meeting him was because there was a pen and ink caricature of him waving a saltire in a 1995 issue of the Times Higher Education Supplement. This article announced the launch of a new MSc in Nationalism Studies at Edinburgh University. It was this that encouraged me to abandon my plans to study nationalism in Quebec and move from Brighton on the south coast of England to study nationalism in Scotland. Thus, when I finally arrived (to my shame, late) to the first ever meeting of students in the MSc in Nationalism Studies and blustered in the door with all eyes on me, I recognised Tom from the drawing. I have clear memories of this initial meeting. This was not least because I also met my wife, Shanti Sumartojo, at that meeting—I had a lot going on in that first class—but I remember Tom too. Tom was an important part of the initial years of the MSc. David McCrone had been the prime mover in setting up the degree (and having now worked in universities for two decades, I have an appreciation of the work involved in this—thank you, David). Tom was quieter than David in the first meeting, but he had a presence conveyed through silences. As far as teaching was concerned, Tom's role was to create and lead classes that would integrate some of the other social science perspectives on nationalism that were part of the wider degree. These classes also involved PhD students, notably Ailsa Henderson, and were a joy to be part of. They were usually followed by a liquid lunch down on the Cowgate, and when he could, Tom would join us. This meant that Thursday afternoons were not the most productive of times from a purely words-on-page perspective. The ghost of John Knox would surely have disapproved of this high enjoyment, low work-rate combination. But what mattered was that Thursdays became an important point of contact and cohort-building between students from the US, Canada, Japan, the former Soviet Union and, of course, the United Kingdom. Received: 19 April 2023 Accepted: 5 May 2023