Abstract
This article highlights the gap between the quantitative importance gained by nations and nationalism studies in the literature and the relative lack of empirical research within it, and illustrates this proposition through the question of state-led nation-building in Europe. It then assesses the pros and cons of the original contribution made by historian Eugen Weber in his Peasants into Frenchmen. It concludes by suggesting what use researchersinterested in nation-building might make of Weber’s work.