This article considers the need, when studying nationalism, to combine the analysis of the particular case with the status of the issue in the analysis of the generic nation/nationalism which brings us to the historical time when the study is being conducted. What stands out currently is the importance of the historiographic renovation spearheaded by a group of historians, sociologists, anthropologists and political scientists in the first half of the 1980s. And because of his popularity, E. Hobsbawm's contribution particularly stands out. In a complementary fashion, it also advances a hypothesis on the reasons behind this historiographic renovation. The last part of the article focuses on determining the effects this renovation had on analyses of Catalanism.