The tabooing of the concept of nation has led to a lack of awareness and discussion about the meaning and role of the nation. Aleida Assmann's new book aims to stimulate this debate: it pleads for the reinvention of a form of nation that understands itself as democratic, civil and diverse and is able to face the enormous tasks of the future in solidarity. In order to better understand the current crisis of the nation it is indispensable to examine the different narratives determining the past, future and identity of social groups. They prove to be a key to the question of all ideas dividing nations - and of all concepts unifing them.