Nations and Nationalism since 1780: Programme, Myth, Reality (Canto)

Book Description

Eric Hobsbawmâ€™s brilliant enquiry into the question of nationalism won further acclaim for his â€~colossal stature â€¦ his incontrovertible excellence as an historian, and his authoritative and highly readable proseâ€™. Recent events in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet republics have since reinforced the central importance of nationalism in the history of political evolution and upheaval. This second edition has been updated in the light of those events, with a final chapter addressing the impact of the dramatic changes that have taken place. It also includes additional maps to illustrate nationalities, languages and political divisions across Europe in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

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Nationalism as a Social Construct.......2007-10-05

Hobsbawm takes issues the premise that the "nation" is the genesis of social groups. He writes, "Nations as a natural way of classifying men as an inherent political destiny is a myth" (10). Rather, he contends that a good deal of "social engineering" is involved in the creation of nations and the nation-state. As such, the idea of nations and nationhood is not static, but rather has changed over time. Hobsbawm examines the nature of nationalism, its origin, and its evolution over a number of epochs.

During the revolutionary period, nationalism was based on the common interest of a group of people seeking sovereignty in their political expression. However, as the idea of nation becomes more solidified, issues of heterogeneity may become problematic. Pressures emerge for "the people" to adopt a system of common norms. From this, emerges an idea of unifying citizenship.

Between 1830 and 1880, a number of nation-states emerge, particularly in Europe. In many regards, this emergence was in response to capitalism development. The nation-state "guaranteed the security of property and contracts" and ensured competition (28). Nation-states began to internalize their national economies, "...in any case nation implied national economy and its systematic fostering by the state, which in the 19th century meant protectionism" (29).

Up until about 1880, nationalism and "the nation" was a unifying concept; it brought various groups under one umbrella. After 1880, things began to change. The national sentiments of the common people became politically relevant. Thus we begin to see the rise of proto-nationalism. With the emergence of the modern state (an encompassing, institutionalized government ruling over a particular territory) issues of legitimacy emerged, particularly during modernization. Social structures were changing. Monarchical forms (dynastic lineages, or divine rule) were failing. As such, the state and ruling elites needed to create a "civic religion" or a sense of state-patriotism. Hobsbawm writes that patriotism relates to "the sovereign people" of a territory, regardless of language or ethnicity (86-7). One way state-patriotism is created in through the opening of the political process. Subjects are changed into citizens. As such, the citizens gain a "stake" in their state.

The state and ruling elites can create a concept of state-patriotism based upon commonalities between groups (real or imagined) between various nationalistic groups, thus creating one community. One way this unifying concept emerges is through a sense of protonationalism. Protonationalism refers to the ways in which nationalism is politicized. Holding with his premise that feelings of nationalism are socially constructed, Hobsbawm writes "states and national movements could mobilize certain variants of feelings of collective belonging which already existed and which could operate, as it were, potentially in the more macro-political scale which could fit in with modern states and nations" (46). Protonational bonds include religion, kinship, empire, and a sense of national consciousness.
Hobsbawm also illustrates the dynamism of nationalism in his discussion the emergence of ethnicity and language as requirement for national movements between 1880-1914. Hobsbawm argues that social, political and international changes led to the emergence of ethnic and linguistic nationalism. He contends that traditional groups may feel threatened by the emergence of a strong state and thus mobilize against it. Also, ethnic groups become urbanized which leads to a greater propensity for mobilization. Politically, the move towards democratization leads to the emergence of increasing number of interest groups, often based on ethnicity and language. Additionally, modernization increased the size of the middle class. This middle class felt pressures from both the lower and upper classes. In a bid for protection, the middle class moved towards the political right. In the international environment of the era, many states with imperial designs or national rivalries, welcomed the middle strata. By embracing right-wing causes, the middle class achieves a sense of identity.

The discussion is continued through the interwar years, and continues through the 1950s. Following WWI, the old, unifying nationalism gave way to the still "unredeemed minorities" who were rebelling against the new existing states, i.e. the Basques, Welsh, etc. "What was new was the emergence of such aspirations in nominally national, but actually pluri-national states of western Europe in a political rather than a primarily cultural form" (139). What we see during the interwar period "was the nationalism of established nation-states and their irredenta" (143).

During WWII and the post-war period, many national movements moved towards leftist ideologies, as opposed to the right-wing political movements of the WWI era. This was in part a response to the rise of fascism, and also a move towards decolonization (throw of the chains). In fact, during the war and slightly before it could be argued that a sense of "internationalism" existed. Nations joined forces to fight fascism, colonization, etc.

In regards to nationalism at present, Hobsbawm historically sees a rise and decline trajectory of nationalism's importance. He argues that nationalism at the end of the 20th century is declining in importance. In the Third World, we begin to see a different nationalism than was found in Europe. Hobsbawm argues that this leads to a "general skepticism about the universal applicability of the `national' concept" (152). Third World nationalism was not necessarily based on homogenous ethnicity, etc. When decolonization occurred, groups were "trapped in the state territories drawn by the colonizing powers. This leads to a lot of tension within the state. What we find in these states is not necessarily a move towards self-determination, but rather the groups are bargaining for their share of resources within the state. This is partly the result of modernization. Hobsbawm writes that the "massive and multifarious movements, migrations, and transfers of people [which] undermined the other basic nationalist assumption of territory inhabited essentially be an ethnically, culturally, and linguistically homogenous population" (157).

that nationalism is premised largely on myth.......2006-12-31

Does not refute its existence. Hobsawm's arguments about the creation of nationalism are quite true, but he takes as his starting point, not the cultures that Nationalism destroyed, but his acultural commiunist world order.
Herein lies his major flaw: first, by refuting nationalism's authenticity, he is justifiying the communist legacy of aggrressive destructiveness towards "national" groups, who might simply be said to be in the throes of a mythologically based false consciousness. In this snese, communism is really a kind of hyper nationalism - Imperialism really - that does to whole nations what nationalists once did to regions.

In this sense, communism is a continuation of the Imperialism of revolutionary Nationalists.

The other major flaw lies in the negation of culturally distinct identities. These do exist, are based largely in geography and are not reinforced and perpetuated by historians over imbued with the spirit of scientific socialism. In this case, Hobsbawm's Marxism is merely a more extreme version of a kind of narrow, intellectualism. Like Spock, he sees anything not based on fact as "invalid".

The fall of communism has led to the assertion of "buried" nationalisms. In refuting those nationalisms, Hobsbawm is accomplishing two major ideological goals: one, he is showing that communism really didn't repress anything and was thus a good thing; second, he is making sordid the disorder that followed its fall by showing that it's all based on lies. While many national identities are, indeed fabricated, they quickly become real. Second, the fall of communism and the rise of the EU have both facilitated the re-emergence of regional identities. This is particularly so in less econoically advanced areas. to name but one example, the Sicilian language persists side by side with the official Italian langauge and remains the first language learned by most Sicilians. Not so with the Northern Italian dialects. Why? Because those areas attract immigrants from all over Italy. They marry, have kids and use Italian as their lingua franca in the home, and their kids grow up wholly ignorant of their parents regional language.

Thus, the Italian nation is real, but more so in the center and North than in the South. Further, it isn't some mythical facade fabricated to prevent the emergence of commmunism. Its emergence has come about for more practicial reasons.

An interesting counter point can be found in Catalonia in Spain. Here, you have a language and culture that deviates from Spain. But, and this is a big fat but, it is an Industrial Area that has brought in many Spainiards. Now, there is enormous pressure to speak Catalan. So you have grandchildren of Spaniards learning Catalan. Eventually, they marry Catalans and Spanish disappears. Fascinating stuff, really. I'm the MASTER!!!!! I dominate at social and historical analysis!!!!!!

Often Insightful.......2006-10-17

This is a very good overview of nationalism. Following other scholars, notably the pioneering work of Carlton Hayes and Hans Kohn in the 1930s, Hobsbawm point of departure is the fact that nationalism in the modern sense is a recent phenomenon, arising prinicipally in the 19th century and often as the produce of state formation in that era. Hobsbawm covers the history of nationalist ideas from the early 19th century onward, describing the evolution of nationalist ideas from their association with liberal political movements to their later association with the right, indeed, the fascist right. Hobsbawm covers also the basic historiography as well. The primary theme is the social construction of nationalism, often as a state mediated process with developing states using nationalist ideas to increase social cohesion. Hobsbawm also points out how nationalist ideas often arise from confrontation with others, an increasingly common experience as 19th and 20th century Europe saw increasing contact with others from differing ethnicities and religions as the world economy promoted large population movements and novel information about others. Written with Hobsbawm's typical combination of broad erudition and solid prose, this is an engaging and instuctive book.

Hobsbawm places nationalism in its historical context.......2005-08-10

We ordered this book as a reading for our 'Old Curmudgeons Book Club'. The book club is made up of a small bunch of 'older guys', i.e. in their 50s and 60s. We get together once a month and disucss non-fiction books. We've been doing this for about 15 years now. The book has to have something important to say about the human condition. Since nations and nationalism play such an important role in the 20th and 21st centuries, we thought it important to get a better handle on this. Hobsbawm's book helps us to understand the incredibly short time that nations and nationalisms have played a big role in the human experience. It is essentially a 19th century invention and yet it has become such a part of our thinking - e.g. the notion of the inviolability of national sovereignty, the whole business of being an 'American', Briton, Australian, etc. which is such an important part of self identity. One piece of information I found to be astonishing is the statement that at the time of the founding of modern 'Italy',in the mid 19th century, only 2.5% of the population in the territory now known as Italy spoke Italian. Hobsbawm's book then, helps to put into perspective the whole notion of nation and nationalism and helps us to be a bit more critical and more sceptical (suspicious perhaps) when political leaders appeal in language such as 'My fellow Americans', or 'Canadians believe that...', etc. Oh yeah? (What's America? What's Canada, etc.? It helps us to recall Samuel Johnson's famous and useful phrase 'Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel'. Of course, we can get into debates about the difference between 'nationalism' and 'patriotism' but, for my money, they're pretty much the same thing and both are based on unexamined assumptions. Hobsbawm's book will get you thinking about these issues.
Jim Ward

Corrupted analysis.......2005-07-13

You'll never get the straight story about nationalism out of Eric Hobsbawm, who himself appears to try to reconcile his own ethnic identity with the topic. David Pryce-Jones once noted that in Hobsbawm's own autobiography: "he [Hobsbawm] boasts of a visit to Bir Zeit University on the West Bank to display solidarity with the Palestinians. Why Palestinian nationalism is valid, and Jewish nationalism invalid, is something else Hobsbawm fails to analyze and explain. Quite crudely, he approves of nationalism in countries which proclaim themselves Communist and anti-American, like Cuba or Vietnam, while rejecting nationalism in countries which are not Communist and are pro-American, like Israel" ([...], Jan. 3, 2003).

Such twisted thinking is evident through "Nations and Nationalism," where Mr. Hobsbawm spares no effort, however subtle, to demean nationalism that doesn't conform to his pre-existing prejudices. In short, when writing about nationalism, Mr. Hobsbawm allowed his considerable analytic and writing skills to become corrupted by his religion, communism. Therefore, unless you are an acolyte of that religion, this book is not worth your time, money or effort to read, and if you *are* a member of that religion, I suggest you broaden your intellectual horizons a bit, perhaps by reading Liah Greenfield's "Nationalism: Five Roads to Modernity" or Benedict Anderson's "Imagined Communities."

Blood Sacrifice and the Nation: Totem Rituals and the American Flag (Cambridge Cultural Social Studies)

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AN INSTANT CLASSIC

Blood Sacrifice and the Nation: Totem Rituals and the American Flag (Cambridge Cultural Social Studies)
Carolyn Marvin , and David W. Ingle
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
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ASIN: 0521626099

Book Description

The authors argue that American patriotism is a civil religion organized around a sacred flag, whose followers engage in periodic blood sacrifice of their own children to unify the group. Using an anthropological theory, this groundbreaking book presents and explains the ritual sacrifices and regeneration that constitute American nationalism, the factors making particular elections or wars successful or unsuccessful rituals, the role of the mass media in the process, and the sense of malaise that has pervaded American society during the post-World War II period.

Customer Reviews:

AN INSTANT CLASSIC.......2001-06-25

This is a great work of social science, one of the most significant books of our time. Marvin and Ingle state that "The underlying cost of all society is the violent death of some of its members." In contrast to the view that societal violence is something that occasionally "happens" in spite of our best efforts, the authors argue that violence is INHERENT WITHIN THE VERY NATURE AND STRUCTURE OF "SOCIETY."

Many writers speak about the naturally "aggressive" nature of human beings. Marvin and Ingle understand that violence has a deeper source, namely the societal compulsion to SACRIFICE ITS OWN MEMBERS IN THE NAME OF THE SACRED (NATIONAL) IDEAL. It is this SACRIFICAL meaning of violence that human beings refuse to perceive.

The authors state that "OUR DEEPEST SECRET, THE COLLECTIVE GROUP TABOO, IS KNOWLEDGE THAT SOCIETY DEPENDS ON THE DEATH OF SACRIFICIAL VICTIMS AT THE HANDS OF THE GROUP ITSELF."

Our capacity to understand the nature of human society requires perceiving this relationship between sacred groups and collective violence. This book represents a significant step toward revealing and articulating this relationship.

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The most influential theorist of nationalism.......2006-12-15

Start with Benedict Anderson's "Imagined Communities" to understand the contingency of modern nations, but then read Gellner. This is a master opus and the most elegant treatment of nationalism in print.

Interesting, super important, but his diction bores the dead.......2005-02-02

First, a few words on nationalism itself. Nationalism is important to study because during the 20th century, it has been one of the most despicable forces to ever hit this world and as such, needs to be understood. (And yes, I consider fascism a form of nationalism).

The twin founding fathers of nationalism, Hans Kohn and Carleton Hayes, construct the skeleton on which other authors (Gellner, Smith, Hobsbawm, Hutchinson, Breuilly, Armstrong, Anderson, etc.) try to fill in the gaps by narrowing one component, and exploring that area in extreme detail. Breuilly looks at solely the political aspects, Hutchinson and Anderson look at the cultural, etc. Gellner looks at the political tied to the cultural. In short, culture for Gellner is everything.

As Mel Brooks says in Robin Hood: Men in Tights, "the short, short version..." Gellner thinks that industrialization homogenized cultures, which in turn was bound to state-led educational facilities (schools, etc.). Teaching everyone the same thing, having them dress the same way, in short, nurturing a single identity created nationalism. Once culture bound with politics, nations emerged. Then nationalism came (independently).

Now for the more detailed review:

Gellner asserts the following explanation for the rise of nations and nationalism (two distinct things):

Nations are self-defined by the inhabitants within them. All nations share a culture.

Nationalism is a modern force which holds that politics and nations are congruent and inseparable.

Without one, you cannot have the other.

The reason for its modernity is simple to understand: allegiance to one's country hundreds of years ago was immaterial because people did not think in terms of nationality or country (and prior to 1648, there was no such thing as country). They may have thought in terms of religion or King, but certainly not nationality. And because of that central tenet, politics did not square with nationality. Politics was always present, but it squared with religion or king.

Gellner contends that there exist 3 general, but distinct, stages of human societal development throughout history:

Hunger-gatherer, agro-literate, and the industrial.

It is during the industrial stage where Gellner sees the emergence of both nations and nationalism. Both the hunter-gatherer stage as well as the agro-literate fall flat in producing either nations or nationalism, the first because HG's had no states (hence politics not bound to that region) at all, and the latter because cultural diversity was the hallmark of the day. The prerequisite, which emerged only after peasants moved into the cities to find work, was cultural homogenization. In short, there glue binding politics and culture was homogenization.

Once industrial societies emerged, however, all hell broke loose: shared culture, customs, languages, etc. replaced local, village-type culture. Regional dialects gradually gave way to a universal dialect. And the reason for homogenization? One Gellner offers is to maintain the status-quo. This homogenization shaped individuals into a more cohesive unit, and thus emerged collective group-think (dress alike, think alike--almost like Truman Show).

In addition, when societies moved from the agro-literate stage to the industrialized state, the nature of the type of work changed: it went from manual and static, to more sophisticated and fluid. According to Gellner, this feature produced the unintended effect of leading to both impersonalization and homogenization amongst the masses (within a region). Regional differences dissipated. So at this point in his argument, we have a standardization of culture.

Another secondary point that he adds to his thesis is that any society based on capitalism needs to grow, and that growth spurs more societal transformations. This has the effect of a catch-22: on one hand, the need for a high-level of technical skill promotes egalitarianism because it is mobile. Contrast this with agro-literate days, where work was static and hence people were stuck in societal roles. On the other hand, specialization was not so great as no one could learn it--quite the opposite: give workers generic training, and they will venture off on their own and become masters of their trade.

Gellner posits that since industrialization spurred great transformations in education, with little instruction after having acquired the basics, people can fluidly move from one position to the next (like going from HR to marketing to sales to data entry) within a company. Here is the gravy: people's fates are bound to education, because it is the key to societal mobility. And since educational institutions needed to be standardized, that is where the state comes in. Thus, politics is bound with culture.

And as for nations and nationalism?

They can emerge only when social conditions result in homogenization across the entire populace.

Isolated pockets that retain their old, immature culture (in contradistinction to high culture) eventually acquire the high culture because inhabitants that seek work in the cities return to those very villages (more or less, civilized). In short, they saw their own shortcomings and adopted a higher level of culture (which is exactly what John Plamenatz contends in his distinction between the Eastern and Western types of nationalism).

So there you have it.

Some issues I have with his contentions:

Clearly, Gellner looks only at the outcome of industrialization as nationalism. In short, if a society did not undergo industrialization, guess what? No nationalism or nations! That is why it is too Euro-centric (and Gellner's thesis is SILENT on the case of the Slavs--who had NO IDENTITY & did not even undergo industrialization until way later.

Not to mention the developing countries. Are the Kurds industrialized? Do they not constitute a nation? And the Palestinians?

Gellner confuses the differences between nationalism based on unity and nationalism based on independency (+ unity). He offers a cookie-cutter approach, a one-size fits all thesis that is profound, and certainly helps us to understand how Western Europe, which underwent industrialization, adopted a universal culture, and then had a nationalist movement, but he should have stopped there. It certainly was the case in England, France, Germany, Italy, and the US, but how about Romania? Or the Slavs? When did they industrialize? It was when the Austro-Hungarian empire split after WW1 did they undergo a nationalist movement. And then, arguably, came their nation.

In sum, Gellner's book is so profound because it explains how nations and nationalism emerged--at least in the industrialized, Western-European societies. A bit dry reading--certainly dont take it to the beach! Better yet bring a lot of coffee, highlighters, and keep the lights bright. But such an important work.

A classic...but classic isn't necessarily good.......2004-06-05

At first I thought this was going to be an enjoyable, positive reading exercise since Chapter 1 was clear and thought provoking. But by the sixth chapter I literally wanted to tear the book to pieces. Gellner's book is considered "a classic" in the literature on nationalism, but I contend that its weaknesses equal or outweigh its contributions. I found Gellner's theory extremely Euro-centric and remarkably exasperating. Moreover, Gellner's style of writing was excessively repetitive, "tedious and pedantic" (something he claimed in his conclusion to have avoided), besides being overly assertive.
Gellner's typology, in my opinion, is based on the faulty idea that there are only two types of societies: agrarian and industrial, and that the modern state is omnipotent vis a vis the society. While agrarian Europe was stagnating, other areas of the world had flourishing cultures based on trade *and* agriculture *and* small-scale industry. Some even had local identities (early ersatz nationalisms) that set them apart from the other localities with which they had regular contact through trade, diplomacy, wars and exploration. And while modern European societies are fully industrialized, with omnipotent states, many modern "third-world" societies are mixed agrarian/industrial, and the state vies with other groups in society for loyalty.
I do agree with Gellner's appraisal that nationalism and nationalities are not inevitable aspects of the human condition. But I disagree with his theory that industrial society led to the homogenization of cultures and appearance of nationalism. Much of my disagreement lies in his a priori assumption that the state is "only too conspicuously present" and that power is highly centralized in the state of the industrial era. In fact, Gellner went so far as to claim that having no state is not an "option". Certainly, having a state is the norm in the modern world, but it is by no means impossible that a state can fail, leaving a society essentially `stateless'. Moreover, presence of a state does not necessarily indicate that the state is able to control the society over which it nominally has authority.
Gellner's use of the term of culture is very ambiguous. Rather than rely on an anthropological definition of culture as a "system of ideas and signs and associations and ways of behaving and communicating" Gellner claims it is better to focus on "what culture does". But, his explanation of what culture does is inadequate. According to Gellner, culture in agrarian society favored "horizontal" cleavages, whereas industrial society is more egalitarian and favors "vertical" cultural cleavages. In other words, cultural differences led to regionally cross-cutting societal hierarchies in agrarian society but in industrial society, cultural differences led to national divisions and culturally homogenous groups - which, according to Gellner, industrial society required for survival.
Do societies *need* to be homogenous or do individuals themselves *want* to assimilate in order to get ahead? And does assimilation necessarily mean the fading away of sub-cultures? These are the types of questions that came to mind as I read Gellner's theory, and his rejection of Elie Kedourie's theory that nationalism forces homogenization. Certainly, a common means of communication becomes crucial in a highly specialized industrial society. But Gellner's theory does not explain why people would die or kill to promote or protect their culture. His theory also implies that people can belong to only one culture.
Gellner, if alive today, would probably agree with Francis Fukiyama's and Ron Unz's assessment that the survival of the United States relies on the continued supremacy of Anglo-Saxon culture and the end of bilingualism and multi-culturalism. But I whole-heartedly disagree that a mono-culture is an "inescapable imperative" of industrial society. Especially in today's `global village', education should support awareness of other cultures and the skills needed to interact confidently with those other cultures. That, in my opinion, includes a strong basis in one's own sub-culture, the "national" culture and international cultures. I also disagree that traditional, kin-based groupings have no place in our modern society. In fact, I believe that educational systems in developing states should make use of traditional forms of education. This would require rejecting the industrial -age mode of education that Gellner described - unspecialized and suffering from "Diploma Disease" in favor of a return to the specialized training of the `agrarian era' that Gellner says it is impossible to return to. Let's hope he is wrong about that too!

The Siren Call of Nationalism.......2001-06-11

A densely-written and concise book, as befitting Gellner's style, which is not usual in English writing. There is for example, a paucity in examples, unlike (say) Benedict Anderson's "The Imagined Community", another modern work on nationalism.

As an Irishman, I can see that parts of Gellner's thesis does fit Ireland. I can see how Irish Nationalism developed in the last century from the aspirations of working-class and middle-class townsmen adopting a metropolitan culture, and shifting away from their former communal and rural bonds. However, I am less sure that some historical memory did not play any part in this, the struggles of post-Reformation Ireland to maintain some independence from the English crown in the 17th century must have had its own influence. However, the arrival of French Revolutionary ideology at the end of the 18th century set the stage definitely for Nationalism, which at the time allied itself with democracy/ republicanism, possibly because as national communities were majorities in their own territories, these ideologies lent themselves to the nationalist case.

This is a facinating subject, and this book is a major contribution.

classic modernist account of nationalism.......2000-08-17

Truly one of the most important books ever written about nationalism, this is also one of the few modernist accounts of nationalism that ages well. While this book was published in 1983, it is basically an expanded version of a chapter from Gellner's earlier _Thought and Change_ (1964) with some alterations. However, even 36 years later his thesis is still as strong as ever: nationalism is a result of the transformation from agrarianism to industrialization. I'll try to summarize his thesis briefly.

Gellner describes the agrarian society as one where power is concentrated at the top with a complex division of labor and an emphasis on informality and intimacy. Basically each group lives in their own happy little world cut off from the rest.

But then things begin to change. The transformation to modernity involves a huge number of changes in society: the peasants have to pick up and move to the city for work. There mobility, formality (the 'Diploma Disease') and a universalised high culture replace intimacy, informality and various low cultures, and the peasants feel alienated (a touch of Marx?). The intelligentsia of the peasant group then decide to save their low culture by turning it into a high culture, which can only survive through state-supported education. Thus the peasant people decide to return home, seceed to form a new state and - presto - they've become a nation. This part of the story is obviously the violent part: Gellner claims that things will get better in late industrialism, where we'll have 'muted nationalism' after all those secessions have taken place.

While simplistic, there is a lot of truth to this story, which is well documented in the large number of nations which emerged in this way, especially in eastern Europe. However, Gellner neglects several things, most importantly what basis these peasants have for feeling like they have something in common besides their class. He also relies too much on the structural changes in society - nothing is left up to individuals or even groups, since nationalism is socially, not ideologically determined. Therefore the peasants themselves have no say in any of this: they're just riding the wave of history (Marx again?).

Book Description

The emergence in 1991 of the fourteen borderland post-Soviet states has been accompanied by the reforging of their national identities. Such attempts to rethink or reimagine the nation have had a major impact in reshaping the political, cultural and social lives of both national and ethnic minority groups alike. This book analyzes these national identities and explores their consequences for the borderland states, with substantive studies drawn from the Baltic states, Ukraine and Belarus, Transcaucasia and Central Asia.

Rescuing History from the Nation: Questioning Narratives of Modern China

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A Provocative look at Nationialism and History
History of China in a Modern Age

Rescuing History from the Nation: Questioning Narratives of Modern China
Prasenjit Duara
Manufacturer: University Of Chicago Press
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Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0226167224

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Prasenjit Duara offers the first systematic account of the relationship between the nation-state, nationalism, and the concept of linear history. Focusing primarily on China and including discussion of India, Duara argues that many historians of postcolonial nation-states have adopted a linear, evolutionary history of the Enlightenment/colonial model. As a result, they have written repressive, exclusionary, and incomplete accounts.

The backlash against such histories has resulted in a tendency to view the past as largely constructed, imagined, or invented. In this book, Duara offers a way out of the impasse between constructionism and the evolving nation; he redefines history as a series of multiple, often conflicting narratives produced simultaneously at national, local, and transnational levels. In a series of closely linked case studies, he considers such examples as the very different histories produced by Chinese nationalist reformers and partisans of popular religions, the conflicting narratives of statist nationalists and of advocates of federalism in early twentieth-century China. He demonstrates the necessity of incorporating contestation, appropriation, repression, and the return of the repressed subject into any account of the past that will be meaningful to the present. Duara demonstrates how to write histories that resist being pressed into the service of the national subject in its progress—or stalled progress—toward modernity.

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A Provocative look at Nationialism and History .......2005-11-03

Prasenjit Duara weaves together theoretical and historical material on China and India in this insightful look at how history has become "nation-centric." Although historical writing has a long, diverse history beyond the nation-state, "modern history" in the Western sense began with the rise of the European nation-states in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries.

Duara presents a series of brilliant, yet challenging arguments regarding the prevalence of the Nation in historiography. His main argument is that "national history secures for the contested and contingent nation the false unity of a self-same, national subject evolving over time (page 2)." This basically means that history, in the nation-centric sense, homogenizes difference, while separating itself from the "Other." After expanding on this argument, Duara lays out several counter-narratives, primarily focused on periods in Chinese "nation-building" history, that attempt to "bifurcate" (i.e. complicate)the simplistic "Enlightenment history" that has become the staple of Chinese historiography. His essays on civil society and provincial narratives (Chapters 5 and 6) are especially interesting.

I enjoyed reading Duara, and found his arguments very useful towards writing history that's not so nation-oriented (e.g. world-history, comparative studies). His writing was clear, but still difficult because of the many postmodernist terms (be sure to read Foucault or at least have a postmodernist dictionary at hand). I'd recommend reading Benedict Anderson's "Imagined Communities" first, if only because Anderson serves as a useful introduction to the debates over the nation-state concept/discourse.

History of China in a Modern Age.......2000-08-03

This book is highly theoretical and inspiring work in modern Chinese history studies. I read this book with great pleasure and comfort. No doubt Professor Duara is both a wonderful historian and narrator of conflicting forces inside the Baboon Curtain. As an Indian-born historian, he made very interesting comparation between Indian and Chinese history. As we all know, most historian were hired by the government( in Duara's word " nation-state"), so in their works, China is supposed to be enjoying a monolithic power in the middle of world. But with the method of Duara, we see more distinctive accounts of the so called colonial age in ancient Chinese History. One of most important argument which Duara made in his book is that Enlightment historian suppose ancient China based on a homogenous community that corresponds to the instrumental ideology of the modern state. He pointed out there are some basic difference in Modern China and ancient Chinese traditions

especially after the May,4th movement. Another point which I agree is that it is awkward to impose some Western classification machanism on the Chinese history. A lot of China-centered historians are well trained by Western ideology and tradition which is radically different from Asian heritage. For example, some historian argues that there is no real "feudalism" existed in Ancient China. So in this field, attempts to analyze the forces behind the account is very prone to be western-minded. Another claim he made is that the so called "nationlism" is far from from unique in the history. In this work, some important currents in the Pre-modern and Modern notion and figured are discussed, such as Imperialism and Anti-Imperialism, Mao and Communism, Fictions in the 1920s etc.

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Nation and Narration

Homi K. Bhabha

Enriching Experience

The polemic usefulness

articulating postcolonial experience

Nation and Narration
Homi K. Bhabha
Manufacturer: Routledge
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Location of Culture (Routledge Classics)

Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism, New Edition

Culture and Imperialism

A Critique Of Post-colonial Reason: Toward A History of the Vanishing Present

Black Skin, White Masks

ASIN: 0415014832

Book Description

A classic collection of essays providing an excellent introduction to the many different narrations of the 'nation'. Contributors include Gillian Beer, Homi Bhabha, introduction to the many different narrations of the

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Nation and Narration.......2007-07-16

Great book! Very insightful concerning relationships with 'the other' (other cultures, other people, etc.).

Homi K. Bhabha.......2002-03-20

How unfortunate that the previous reviewer had to resort to questioning a fellow reader's intellect and ability to read what is undoubtedly a complicately structured text. This type of comment epitimises the elitism that Bhabha is himself charged with. The inaccessability of this text to the wide majority of readers(and that is not due to a need for reading classes) has left Bhabha's 'liminal space' an area of discussion accessible only to a handful of individuals whose academic capital apparently surpasses that of their humility. There is no attempt made at any point in this book to explain what are undoubdtedly fascinating concepts in laymans terms, thereby excluding the vast majority of readers of all social strata for whom reading is a pleasure and not a struggle .

Enriching Experience.......2001-10-21

I was mystified by the ignorance of a previous reviewer whose implications that Bhabha could not write clearly showed not only his stupidity, but perhaps also a marked LACK of reading classes. could i perhaps suggest to this gentleman that he take a reading class so that he is better equipped to deal with the prose, poetry and magic that abounds within this most important and significant of post-colonial discourses.

The polemic usefulness.......2001-02-19

I don't like Homi Bhabha and I deeply dislike poscolonialist approaches. I think, as a passionate for literature that these theories have lead to forget the aesthetics of reading. I agree that Europe has crushed the periphery and all those ideas but I also don't believe that the solution is to create dangerous identities as totalizing as the European impositions. Nonetheless, I recognize that this book is very useful for anybody trying to understand the concept of nation. Bhabha articulates not very convincingly Fanon and Derrida, but the essays of Brennan and Sommer are excellent and the recovery of Renan's concept provides an excellent counterpoint. The book is a must for anybody interested in the topic, but still does not substite the reading of Said, Fanon and Benedict Anderson.

articulating postcolonial experience.......2000-05-02

If there's one thing that this book offers it is the articulation of gaps and fissures that have been long denied and silenced by the grand narratives of history operating in the hegemonic code of linear western imperialism. This book speaks to us in a special way by virtue of our colonial experience which allows us to question the very foundation of most historical discourses that have been in our curricula and educational system. Reading Bhabha's article DissemiNation, enlightens one in the boundaries and margins of the discourses together with their historical contingencies. Along with The Location of Culture one cannot truly understand postcolonial experience without referring to these books by Homi K. Bhabha.

Insurgent Cuba: Race, Nation, and Revolution, 1868-1898

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Pathbreaking work on race and revolution

Insurgent Cuba: Race, Nation, and Revolution, 1868-1898
Ada Ferrer
Manufacturer: The University of North Carolina Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0807847836
Release Date: 1999-09-29

Book Description

In the late nineteenth century, in an age of ascendant racism and imperial expansion, there emerged in Cuba a movement that unified black, mulatto, and white men in an attack on Europe's oldest empire, with the goal of creating a nation explicitly defined as antiracist. This book tells the story of the thirty-year unfolding and undoing of that movement.

Ada Ferrer examines the participation of black and mulatto Cubans in nationalist insurgency from 1868, when a slaveholder began the revolution by freeing his slaves, until the intervention of racially segregated American forces in 1898. In so doing, she uncovers the struggles over the boundaries of citizenship and nationality that their participation brought to the fore, and she shows that even as black participation helped sustain the movement ideologically and militarily, it simultaneously prompted accusations of race war and fed the forces of counterinsurgency.

Carefully examining the tensions between racism and antiracism contained within Cuban nationalism, Ferrer paints a dynamic portrait of a movement built upon the coexistence of an ideology of racial fraternity and the persistence of presumptions of hierarchy.

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Pathbreaking work on race and revolution.......2000-01-20

Insurgent Cuba tracks the transformation of racial and gendered narratives of the revolution from the abolition of slavery to the war of independence. In this fascinating and pathbreaking book, Professor Ferrer reveals that, with the emergence of late 19th century Cuban nationalism, narratives of race, slavery, and the place of black people in the revolution shift dramatically. Through the voices of leaders like Jose Marti, black insurgents were constructed as color-blind patriots committed to the liberation of Cuba, not slaves and ex-slaves attempting to overthrow the regime of slavery and demand equal rights. Black people were transformed in these three decades from a problem and threat to the republic to the symbols of Cuban nationalism's commitment to multiracial democracy. Anti-racism became a weapon in the hands of Cuban revolutionaries in their battle against Spain, which changed the status of black insurgents, put them on a pedestal in a way, and made their stories fundamental to the narrative of the new republic--one that is colorblind and willing to incorporate everyone as long as they are patriots. For blacks and mulattoes, this discourse gave them a platform to complain about racism in the ranks of the army, in everyday life, everywhere. On the other hand, the ellision of racism in the discourse of Cuban nationalism and the celebration of multiracial republicanism was often used against critics of racism in Cuba. "To speak of race, then," Ferrer writes, "was to challenge the depth of racial and national unity." Any attempts to mobilize on the basis of racial solidarity was then dismissed as divisive and unpatriotic. By reconstructing these different narratives in the context of specific revolts and campaigns, Ferrer offers us a stunning alternative narrative of the struggle for Cuban Independence. Insurgent Cuba is perhaps the best book available on race and Cuba.

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Particularity and Difference
Worthwhile study
An alternative view of nationalism
This book,like many others, pleads for acceptance.

The Nation and Its Fragments
Partha Chatterjee
Manufacturer: Princeton University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0691019436

Book Description

In this book, the prominent theorist Partha Chatterjee looks at the creative and powerful results of the nationalist imagination in Asia and Africa that are posited not on identity but on difference with the nationalism propagated by the West. Arguing that scholars have been mistaken in equating political nationalism with nationalism as such, he shows how anticolonialist nationalists produced their own domain of sovereignty within colonial society well before beginning their political battle with the imperial power. These nationalists divided their culture into material and spiritual domains, and staked an early claim to the spiritual sphere, represented by religion, caste, women and the family, and peasants. Chatterjee shows how middle-class elites first imagined the nation into being in this spiritual dimension and then readied it for political contest, all the while "normalizing" the aspirations of the various marginal groups that typify the spiritual sphere.

While Chatterjee's specific examples are drawn from Indian sources, with a copious use of Bengali language materials, the book is a contribution to the general theoretical discussion on nationalism and the modern state. Examining the paradoxes involved with creating first a uniquely non-Western nation in the spiritual sphere and then a universalist nation-state in the material sphere, the author finds that the search for a postcolonial modernity is necessarily linked with past struggles against modernity.

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Particularity and Difference.......2002-10-01

In this well documented study, Partha Chatterjee challenges the view held by many western scholars that nationalism in Asia and Africa has been based on various modular forms supplied by the rise of nationalism in Europe. Chatterjee is concerned nationalism plays itself out in two very distinct "spaces": the "material" and the "spiritual." For Chatterjee there is the material (external) and the spiritual (internal). One is not touched by the other. The aim is to dispel the myth that post-colonial status assumes a western form. For Chatterjee language is important -- very important. It is the space that makes each unique situation, well, unique. The notion of what is not touchable by the outside forms of the colonial are what resides inside, a space that only language can provide. While the colonized had to adopt western technology to survive, this mechanism is balances out by preserving the spiritual.

To flesh this out a bit, Chatterjee does acknowledge the contribution of the West to Asia and African nationalism, but only in what he identifies as the space of the "outside." This space is comprised by such things as the economy, statecraft, science and technology. There is more, apparently, the more important previously unreflected upon area of the "inner" domain of the spiritual.

In his groundbreaking study, Chatterjee takes a page out of Benedict Anderson's "Imagined Communities" but he reacts to it. If nationalism is relegated to the realm of the rise of modernity, it misses lots of nuance and may be missing some very important elements. Chatterjee takes aim at the problematic head on at, as I mentioned earlier, the rise of nationalism as a process of modernity. His examination of the peasants in relation not only to Indian nationalism, but as a group within its own, often paradoxical values. Is this cultural nationalism an elite movement as discussed by Leah Greenfeld (Nationalism - Five Roads to Modernity) and E. J. Hobsbawm (Nations and Nationalism since 1780)? (both available on Amazon.com) Is so, how did the peasants come to be involved? This almost "subaltern" approach is indicative of its postcolonial/postmodern roots. Chatterjee argues that it must be superseded by `concrete forms of democratic community' that transcend hierarchical and bourgeois equality models. If you see the rise of a nation simply (or exclusively) within the framework of a function of modernity, do you then lose a sense of how the nation was formed from a cultural perspective? Gandhi's notion of family, community and group, based on mutual respect seems to pale in significance by the political and bureaucratic power of the modern state. Chatterjee then offers us the exception that the rise of Bengali nationalism. The items engaged in by Chatterjee are provocative to say the least and does challenge us to question what we feel or know about nationalism. Particularity and difference comes to the forefront of consideration in this book. We all need to take a long hard look at it.

Miguel Llora

Worthwhile study.......2001-10-25

Chatterjee is a typical `postmodern' scholar, and he has a rather jargon-filled and oblique writing style. In some cases, knowledge of Indian and Bengali history, to say nothing of familiarity with contemporary Bengali society and the intricacies of the caste system, would seem to be required to truly understand certain sections of this book. Also, while Chatterjee states that his argument is meant to clarify (to some extent) the conditions of nations, nationalism and society/communities in the postcolonial states of Asia and Africa, his examination is almost exclusively restricted to Bengal in India. There is nothing wrong with this as such, since he deals with the area with which he is most familiar. However, one of his principal underlying themes is a (rather persuasive) criticism of European or `Western' scholars for mis-applying European philosophies and sociological models to non-European, postcolonial societies, and he seems to commit the same error by assuming that his Bengali example can be used to explain circumstances in the vast, diverse lands from the western shores of Africa to southeast Asia.
Nevertheless, "The Nation and Its Fragments" is a very strong argument against simply assuming that nationalism, postcolonial development, industrialization and modernity itself in India (or elsewhere in the so-called `Third World') are simply following `models' already formulated in Europe/America. Chatterjee's most important point is perhaps his call for scholarship on postcolonial societies to commence from completely different fundamental assumptions, rather than trying to force upon it outside (read European) `scientific' models.

An alternative view of nationalism.......2000-07-13

Pranab Chatterjee wisely cautions us to remember that there are ways of expressing nationalism that differ from the Western models. With examples from literature and history the author helps us explore the "inner" spiritual or cultural world of Bengalis in colonial India, a world they tried to keep safe and distinct from the "outer" world of British-imposed politics. The writing in places is a bit vague, but the reading is worth the effort to remind us that wisdom does not begin and end in the West.

This book,like many others, pleads for acceptance........1997-07-11

The text is one of many in the field. It is asking to be accepted in the domains of the (white Western) colonial overlord, while, at the same time, attempting to mount a palace coup. These ex-colonials, who so eloquently plead from the "margins" are really to be pitied. They are NOT on the perameter; they are right there at the center, with Homi B Babha and Stewart Hall etc

Race, Nation, Class: Ambiguous Identities

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Race, Nation, Class: Ambiguous Identities
Etienne Balibar , and Immanuel Wallerstein
Manufacturer: Verso
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0860915425

Culture, Nation, & Identity: The Ukrainian-Russian Encounter (1600-1945)

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Culture, Nation, & Identity: The Ukrainian-Russian Encounter (1600-1945)
Mark von Hagen
Manufacturer: Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1895571472

Book Description

The series of four sessions on the Russian-Ukrainian encounter held alternately at Columbia University and Cologne University from June 1994 to September 1995 had their origin in both the world of great political events and the world of scholarly discussion. Ukraine's declaration of independence, ratified by the referendum of 1 December 1991, and subsequent international recognition were followed by the dissolution of the Soviet Union on 25 December 1991. These developments made Ukrainian-Russian relations a major international issue. A new, difficult, and uncertain phase in these relations began with the establishment of these two independent neighbouring states. Since Russia would clearly remain a major world power, while Ukraine was the largest and one of the most populous states of Europe, those relations took on more than binational significance. The future of the post-Soviet order depends largely on how these two largely Slavic countries work out their relations.

The editors of Culture, Nation, and Identity, representing the Seminar for East European History at Cologne University, the Harriman Institute at Columbia University, and the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Alberta, invited seventy specialists to examine the Russian-Ukrainian encounter in four chronological symposia, from the seventeenth century to the present. The papers on the contemporary period were published in the Harriman Review. The present volume is a selection of sixteen articles developed from presentations on the Ukrainian-Russian encounter from the early modern period to World War II. Historians and Slavists from Canada, Germany, Russia, Ukraine, and the United States employ diverse methodologies to examine the many spheres in which Russians and Ukrainians and their identities and cultures interacted.

This title consists of sixteen essays, a preface, and an afterword. Contributors include Viktor Zhivov, Zenon E. Kohut, Frank E. Sysyn, Paul Bushkovitch, Andreas Kappeler, Olga Andriewsky, Serhy Yekelchyk, Dieter Pohl, Yuri Shapoval, and many others.

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