A key text of the 20th century. In his writing "La Nation," composed around 1920 under the impression of World War I, Marcel Mauss developed a concept of "nation" that drives it beyond itself towards internationalism. A crucial role for him was played by a "socialism from below," which he understood as "nationalization" in the sense of a gradual awakening of nations to take their economic interests into their own hands. He placed great hopes in the League of Nations. In this work, Mauss explores the then-current state of nations, their history, and their future prospects from economic, legal-moral, and cultural-historical-ethnological perspectives. His work impresses with both astonishing detail knowledge and remarkable predictions, such as the disintegration of Yugoslavia.