This paper examines the significance and implications of Syrian nationalism in the context of the ongoing uprising. It argues that the emergent popular nationalism in Syria since 2011 should be understood both as a discourse of rupture with state-centric Baathist nationalism, and a continuation of the early nationalism of the 1920 revolt and the Great Syrian Revolt of 1925-27. The process consists of the creation of various vital institutions and spaces such as revolutionary courts, councils, committees, newspapers, and schools, many of which were also created by nationalists in the 1920s. Popular nationalism is not operating in a vacuum. It is repressed by the war and discursive machines of the Syrian state since the beginning of the uprising. In addition, it is competing with a number of subnational and supranational ideologies such as regional, ethnic, and sectarian loyalties as well as global Salafi and Shia discourses. Since 2011, nationalism has been undergoing structural transformations and its contours are renegotiated and challenged. This analytical task is particularly urgent in a region where a self-appointed Islamic State is dismantling century-old national borders and building what it claims to be a post-national paradigm. This paper examines the case of Manbij, a city in the Aleppo Province located in Northern Syria. The city provides an interesting site for the study of the different aspects of popular nationalism. Manbij shows that the construction of a new national community is a vital site of resistance without which the revolt is bound to fail. This explains why the Syrian regime is using all tools at its disposal to counter popular nationalism as it takes place in the streets and the liberated neighborhoods.