This volume examines the volatile nature and complex dynamics of national movements and ethnic conflict around the world. The contributors sort out the class forces that have come to play a central role in directing movements in different socio-political, temporal, and geographic settings. The case studies in this volume include the political history of nationalist movements in Palestine, Kurdistan, South Africa, Northern Ireland, Puerto Rico, the Basque Country, and Quebec; an analysis of the role of the state in ethnic conflicts in India, China, the former Soviet Union, and the former Yugoslavia; and a provocative essay on the role of women in national liberation movements in the Third World that addresses issues of gender and class in national liberation struggles in Africa, the Middle East, and Central America.