Hobsbawm considers that the state made the French nation, and not French nationalism, which emerged at the end of the 19th century, the time of the Dreyfus Affair.

• 他认为法国国家导致了法兰西民族的出现，而不是法兰西民族主义，后者是19世纪末在德雷福斯丑闻的过程中才形成的。