Hearn CSS 44-4, 1 Prepublication draft: Narrative, Agency and Mood: On the Social Construction of National History in Scotland Jonathan Hearn School of Social and Political Studies, University of Edinburgh INTRODUCTION It is a commonplace in the study of nationalism that the construction of national identity inevitably relies on the creation and use of narratives—part history, part myth—that imbue nations and nationalist projects with coherence and purpose. This article seeks to render this idea more complex and analytically useful by asking how such narrative discourses become connected to personal identities. Why and how do people invest themselves in nations and nationalisms? An important part of the answer lies in the ways that constructions of narrative and agency at the collective level articulate with experiences of narrative and agency at a personal level. It is our constant existential concern with power that binds together collectivities and individuals, national narratives, and life histories. We must attend to this connection in order to better understand the powerful resonances nationalist discourses often have. I use data from my research on the nationalist movement in Scotland to illustrate this argument, offering it as a specific example of a general process. Nationalism in this case is understood broadly to refer to demands for greater political autonomy, whether in the form of devolved government or independent statehood, and associated calls for recognition of a distinct cultural identity. The recent establishment of a modern democratic parliament in