Movements Books - Page 17

Nationalism and the Mind: Essays on Modern Culture

Liah Greenfeld

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Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

A Great Book ! 5 out of 5 stars.
6 of 6 people found this review helpful.

This book is a collection of articles written between 1985 to 2005. Liah Greenfeld is mostly known for her work on Nationalism, and her claim that "nationalism is the cultural foundation of modernity". Nationalism, for Greenfeld, is a new "form of consciousness" which appeared in 16th century England and defined what came to
be the dominant worldview of our times. This worldview is fundamentally secular, egalitarian, and based on the idea of popular sovereignty. Greenfeld developed this idea in her first book entitled "Nationalism. Five Roads to Modernity" (Harvard University Press, 1992). Less than 10 years later, she published "The Spirit of Capitalism. Nationalism and Economic Growth" (Harvard University Press, 2001), in which, through a long study of historical records, she showed how the inner logic of nationalism was responsible for the emergence of the modern economy.

Some of the articles included in this volume expand Greenfeld's work on nationalism. The reader will see how nationalism altered the inner logic of various social institutions, such as science, the economy, or literature. One article focuses exclusively on religion ("The Modern Religion?"), and shows the inner logic of one of the most important features of today's world, namely "religious nationalism". Greenfeld's argument is always based on an extremely enlightening and penetrating understanding of human society, written in a language which makes it accessible to the non-specialist.

The guiding principle behind all the articles is the primacy of culture in human (as opposed to animal) experience. The fact that, for Greenfeld, human experience is fundamentally cultural means that human institutions, from the economy to politics, and from literature to psychological development, can only be understood as cultural processes. Greenfeld applies this idea to psychology, examining the cultural bases for many of today's mental disorders, and paves the ground for a new philosophy of mind, taking into account, among other things, the recent findings of neuroscience.

I would definitely recommend this book to everybody, from the professional sociologist to anyone interested in understanding human society. It is a pleasure to read, and a great intellectual experience. And as it only happens with great books, after reading it, the world seems much less confusing.

Editorial Review:

In this collection of Greenfeld's essays, we see her tackle the topic of nationalism from an array of angles, each giving us a unique perspective on what Einstein called 'the measles of mankind'. Covering the analogies between nationalism and religion, the political significance of culture, the incipience of nationalism in Tudor England, and much more, Greenfeld's writing is informative and well-argued.

The Identity of Nations

Montserrat Guibernau

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What is national identity? What are the main challenges posed to national identity by the strengthening of regional identities and the growth of cultural diversity? How is right-wing nationalism connected to the desire to preserve a traditional image of national identity? Can we forge a new kind of national identity that responds to the challenges of globalization and other deep-seated changes?

In this important new book, Montserrat Guibernau answers these and other compelling questions about the future of national identity. For Guibernau, the nation-states traditional project to unify its otherwise diverse population by generating a shared sense of national identity among them was always contested, and was accomplished with various degrees of success in Europe and North America.

Such processes involved the cultural and linguistic homogenization of an otherwise diverse citizenry and were pursued by different means according to the specific contexts within which they were applied. At present, the impact of strong structural socio-political and economic transformations has resulted in greater challenges being posed to the idea that all citizens of a state should share a homogeneous national identity.

Diversity is increasing, and plans for further European integration contain the potential to generate significant tensions, casting greater doubt on the classical concept of national identity.

As a result, we are faced with a set of new dilemmas concerning the way in which national identity is constructed and defined. The book offers a theoretical as well as a comparative approach, with case studies involving Austria, Britain, Canada and Spain, as well as the European Union and the United States of America.

The Identity of Nations will be essential reading for advanced students and professional scholars in sociology, politics and international relations.

The 50% American: Immigration And National Identity in an Age of Terror

Stanley A. Renshon

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Editorial Review:

The United States is the only nation in the world that allows its citizens to hold one or more foreign citizenships, vote in another nation's elections, run for or be appointed to office in another country, and join the armed forces even of a nation with interests hostile to those of the United States while retaining their citizenship. These policies reinforce the often already strong emotional, political, and economic ties today's immigrants retain to their home countries. Yet few studies have addressed what dual citizenship means for the United States as a nation and the integration of immigrants into the American national community. Is it possible to reconcile two different nationalities, cultures, and psychologies? How can we honor immigrants' sense of identity without threatening American national identity? What do Americans have a right to expect of immigrants and what do immigrants have a right to expect of Americans? In The 50 per cent American political psychologist Stanley Renshon offers unique insight into the political and national ramifications of personal loyalties. Arguing that the glue that binds this country together is a psychological force - patriotism - he explains why powerful emotional attachments are critical to American civic process and how they make possible united action in times of crisis. In an age of terror, the idea that we are all Americans regardless of our differences is more than a credo; it is essential to our national security. Comprehensive in scope, this book examines recent immigration trends, tracing the assimilation process that immigrants to the United States undergo and describing how federal, state, and local governments have dealt with volatile issues such as language requirements, voting rights, and schooling. Renshon turns a critical eye to the challenges posed over the past four decades by multiculturalism, cultural conflict, and global citizenship and puts forth a comprehensive proposal for reforming dual citizenship and helping immigrants and citizens alike become more integrated into the American national community.

Freedoms Given, Freedoms Won: Afro-Brazilians in Post-Abolition Sao Paulo and Salvador

Kim D. Butler

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Editorial Review:

Winner of the American Historical Association's Wesley-Logan Prize and the Association of Black Women Historian's Letitia Woods Brown Prize "An important, original, much-needed comparative study of post-emancipation Brazil." --Joao Jose Reis, Universidade Federal da Bahia "A deftly written analysis that goes well beyond most existing studies of slavery's legacy in the hemisphere. The author's candor is refreshing, and her use of interviews provides a major new source of evidence." --Robert M. Levine, author of Brazilian Legacies and Father of the Poor?: Vargas and His Times Freedoms Given, Freedoms Won is the first book-length study devoted to understanding the political life of urban Afro-Brazilians in the aftermath of abolition. It explores the ways Afro-Brazilians in two major cities adapted to the new conditions of life after slavery and how they confronted limitations placed on their new freedom. The book sets forth new ways of understanding why the abolition of slavery did not yield equitable fruits of citizenship, not only in Brazil, but throughout the Americas and the Caribbean. In Sao Paulo, Afro-Brazilians united against racial discrimination, giving rise to a vocal black press and numerous political groups. One of these became the first national civil rights organization and Brazil's only black political party. In Salvador, African identity prevailed over black identity, and social protest was oriented toward protecting the right to practice African-based cultural expressions such as candomble and capoeira. Of all the eras and issues studied in Afro-Brazilian history, post-abolition social and political action has been the most neglected. Freedoms Given, Freedoms Won sets theAfro-Brazilian experience in a national context as well situating it within the Afro-Atlantic diaspora through a series of explicit parallels, particularly with Cuba and Jamaica. Kim D. Butler is an associate professor of history in the Africana Studies department at Rutgers University.

Making Patriots

Walter Berns

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Editorial Review:

Samuel Johnson once remarked that "patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels," but is he right? Recent events such as the bombing of federal buildings and the formation of threatening militias in the name of patriotism suggest that he may have been on to something. But the United States has also seen its share of heroes: patriots who, over the course of history, have willingly put their lives at risk for this country and, especially, its principles. And this is even more remarkable given that the United States is a country founded on the principles of equality and democracy that encourage individuality and autonomy far more readily than public spiritedness and self-sacrifice.

Walter Berns's Making Patriots is a pithy and provocative essay on precisely this paradox. How is patriotism inculcated in a system that, some argue, is founded on self-interest? Expertly and intelligibly guiding the reader through the history and philosophy of patriotism in a republic, from the ancient Greeks through contemporary life, Berns considers the unique nature of patriotism in the United States and its precarious state as we enter the twenty-first century. And he argues that while both public education and the influence of religion once helped to foster a public-minded citizenry, the very idea of patriotism is currently under attack.

Berns finds the best answers to his questions in the thought and words of Abraham Lincoln, who understood perhaps better than anyone what the principles of democracy meant and what price adhering to them may exact. The graves at Arlington and Gettysburg and Omaha Beach in Normandy bear witness to the fact that self-interested individuals can become patriots, and Making Patriots is a compelling exploration of how this was done and how it might be again.

Somanatha: The Many Voices of a History

Romila Thapar

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Editorial Review:

In 1026, Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni raided the Hindu temple of Somanatha (Somnath in textbooks of the colonial period). The story of the raid has reverberated in Indian history, but largely during the raj. It was first depicted as a trauma for the Hindu population not in India, but in the House of Commons. The triumphalist accounts of the event in Turko-Persian chronicles became the main source for most eighteenth-century historians. It suited everyone and helped the British to divide and rule a multi-millioned subcontinent. In her new book, Romila Thapar, the doyenne of Indian historians, reconstructs what took place by studying other sources, including local Sanskrit inscriptions, biographies of kings and merchants of the period, court epics and popular narratives that have survived. The result is astounding and undermines the traditional version of what took place. What makes her findings explosive is the fact that the current Hindu nationalist regime in India constantly utilizes a particular version of history

Jinnah, Pakistan and Islamic Identity: The Search for Saladin

Akbar S. Ahmed

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Total reviews: 35 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Jinnahs Pakistan is as valid today as it was in '47. 5 out of 5 stars.
8 of 16 people found this review helpful.

If ever I had a chance to meet a personality from the past my first and only choice would be a chance to have an evening tea with Mr. Jinnah. Many times I have been approached by my fellow Pakistani citizens claiming that creation of Pakistan was a historical blunder of immense proportions. Their claim that in a unified India; a larger muslim minority would be better able to project their interests. After all emotional and rational explanations to the defense of Pakistan I recluse with a potent exclamation from my dad "Had I been in India I would have been a peon in a government office serving tea". My residence is in the Silicon Valley; which inhabits many residents from the sub-continent; interestingly enough out of the 1000's of desis I get in contact with I have only met with one muslim from India. His despairing accounts of continual police harassment; the unsaid discrimination at official levels and the lack of job opportunities there; has created a deeper conviction within me to philosophy of Pakistan. I am indebted to Mr. Jinnah for the gift he gave us all in the form of a state where we can freely partake in the pleasures of life often denied to the muslims to the east. If it had not happened I would be reading Anandamath (a tale of Hindu lords massacring muslims).

Mr. Ahmed has accomplished a marvelous effort in the writings of Jinnah. He very clearly presents the general situation and tensions prevalent during the times; and the decisions that were made.

Editorial Review:

By revealing Jinnah's human face alongside his heroic achievement, Akbar Ahmed makes this statesman accessible to the current age. Drawing on history, semiotics and cultural anthropology, the author shows the relevance of Jinnah to contemporary Islam debates as well as to alternative forms of political leadership.

The Southern Nation: The New Rise of the Old South

R. Gordon Thornton

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Total reviews: 13 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

A Cause Without a Rebel 3 out of 5 stars.
12 of 18 people found this review helpful.

The Southern cause was indeed noble, built on the notion that each state is a nation unto itself. How many of the original states would have joined the Union if they were told they couldn't leave it? It would be like telling the United States it couldn't leave the United Nations.

Although Abraham Lincoln didn't start the ball rolling on secession, he did bring it to a head and became the worst tyrant this country has ever had. He committed the U.S. to a war without the consent of Congress, blockaded a Southern port without a declaration of war, suspended the writ of habeas corpus, imprisoned dozens of newspaper editors, replaced Maryland's state representatives with federal apointees and imprisoned the elected officials in Fort McHenry (where they had to live in filth and eat food not fit for animals). Frederick, Md., was surrounded and Democrats were imprisoned on the mere suspicion that they were secessionists; Lincoln's army went North to New York City, and during a four day war with the city's militia and citizens, killed thousands. In the South he ordered the extermination of untold thousands of people, bringing the war to civilians. Telegraph wires cut? Simple. Take four or five citizens from the nearest town, line them up against the wall and shoot them. What about homes with women, children and the elderly? Give them the chance to vacate and if the slaves tried to defend the property, kill them first.

Had not John W. Booth parted Lincoln's hair at Ford's Theater, who knows whether he would have ever given up power. He was a tyrant with an army behind him. How many of those have given up power without being killed, like Julius Caesar?

I recommend DiLorenzo's book, THE REAL LINCOLN. Hopefully one day, Lincoln's statue will be dragged out of his temple and America's number 1 Nazi will then be exposed in real history books. Meanwhile, the fictional Lincoln lives on in the hearts and souls of the ignorant.

Thornton clearly wishes to awaken the soul of the Old South; unfortunately, the cause was lost. Even Southerners revere the monster, thanks to reconstruction and the rewriting of history. But God will judge in the end.

Editorial Review:

THE SOUTHERN NATION:The New Rise of the Old South

By R. Gordon Thornton

Blending both historical and contemporary social observations with stubborn activism, The Southern Nation: The New Rise of the Old South is the definitive primer on Southern nationalism--the political drive to preserve the social, religious, political, and cultural traditions of the Southern people. This important new book explores how to reclaim the Southern birthright by developing Southern nationalism in the community and the four principles that Southerners must realize and embrace before they can fulfill their destiny as an independent people.

Republica/ Republic (Biblioteca de Filosofia) (Spanish Edition)

Plato

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Student guide to Plato's The Republic

Nationalism and Federalism in Yugoslavia, 1962-1991

Sabrina P. Ramet

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Extract from �Books on Bosnia�, London 1999 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Perhaps the best English-language textbook history of Titoist Yugoslavia. In the first edition published in 1984, Ramet highlighted the importance of inter-republican contradictions within the Yugoslav Federation and the trend towards confederalization. A somewhat rigid theoretical framework gives the added chapters on the road to war a tacked-on feel