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Title: Nations and Nationalism since 1780 : Programme, Myth, Reality by E. J. Hobsbawm ISBN: 0-521-43961-2 Publisher: Cambridge University Press Pub. Date: 29 October, 1992 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $17.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.25 (12 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Nationalism as progams and policies
Comment: Hobsbawm is a masterful historian, with the chops and interests to take on a variety of important topics. This book is his contribution to the Birth-of-Nationalism literature. Nationalism is often associated with questions of personal commitments or identity politics. This aspect of consciousness, however, is easy to assume, but more difficult to demonstrate, and even harder to historicize. As a result Hobsbawm begs off this question some, and turns his attention instead to the ways that governments (states in search of nations) and national elites (nations in search of states) have invoked or pursued the concept of nation. This work is particularly useful and importnat for its attention to language and education as technologies of nation building. Those who confuse a critical perspective with bias, or cannot overcome their own Marxiphobia, may want to stick to tamer works. For the rest of us, Hobsbawm has provided a readable and compelling exploration. While it has its limits, this is a valuable and important work.
Rating: 5
Summary: A worldview of pan-nationalism?
Comment: In this timeless and enduring book, Hobsbawm dispels the sentiment that national identity as we perceive it today is natural, primary or essential as to be apart from history -- in effect his stance is anti-primordial. For Hobsbawm, who, at least it appears to this reader, as a Marxist, the rise of "world communism" will transcend the petty provincialism of nationalism. Taking a page out of Benedict Anderson's "Imagined Communities"... a new world order will emerge. Is this Francis Fukuyama in sheep's clothing? OK, fair enough, where is there a space for the prevention of tyranny that Hobsbawm speaks of in this book? My guess is that a dynamic tension is formed around the Fukuyama notion of a new world order centered on a liberal democracy and capitalism while Hobsbawm is still dreaming of a world order around the notion of "people of the world unite!" The notion of "Nationalism" seems to be a hindrance in terms of the new world order by both writers. Hobsbawm wishes us to come to the conclusion that nationalism is wrong, dangerous and ugly. Nationalism is based on myth. Effectively, he sees that the "imagined community" or the myth of the nation is used "to fill the emotional void left by the retreat or disintegration of real human communities. As if to contradict himself, he does not flesh out what these "real" communities are. Are they real or are they "imagined"? If this is all much ado about nothing, then why do people spend so much time, energy and resource to arrange themselves in this fashion?
According to Hobsbawm, a particular group of people, an intelligentsia of some nebulous configuration forced nationalism on everyone else. It seems to me that he is suggesting that it is a result of an agenda. The core of this new imagined community has to reach back to a form of ancient or imagined past that will bind those in the hear and now. The new "community" is constructed around the ruins of the past. What is important to consider when it comes to Hobsbawm is the triviality with which he attaches the notion of "imagined" as if it is doomed to fail. As if not making the distinction of when nationalism becomes chauvinism, he lumps them together as a phenomenon whose dusk is approaching. The book is extremely relevant with the rise of globalization.
Hobsbawm is particularly keen when he asserts " A world of nations cannot exist," he posits "only a world where some potential national groups... excludes others." It is insightful that Hobsbawm points this out, however, must we throw away the baby with the bathwater and look instead for some notion of pan-nation that will see the end of diversity? If Hobsbawm is right, then his book is usefull to help us work toward some accommodation of diversity. Do we just become "people" then? If the cross migration continuous, are we "determined" by forces outside our control to decide who we are and what we become? Hobsbawm must be read and analyzed and I am grateful for experience and highly recommend this to all readers interested in the area of nationalism -- an idea that people use but rarely fully understand. This is your first step.
Miguel Llora
Rating: 5
Summary: The red menace?
Comment: I am quite surprise with some reviewers and their obssesion with Marxism. Let me remind you that Berlin Wall has fallen down.The idological preferences of the author are well known, in fact after 1989 he is one of the few who still describes himself as a Communist. You can be agree with him or not, but what Hobsbawn does in this book is a very good analylis of Nationalism. From a marxist point of view? right. Is an option. But the point is, does this book make think about the subject? Absolutely. Was the idea of Nationalism a product of the French revolution?. True. Was it used by the new Burgeois governments to seize power? Yes.
I am very tired of the idea that an historian must be absolutely neutral. That is not true. When you prefer Middle ages to Ancient history you are making a choice. An historian cannot be like the Caesar's wife. It is not his job. His job is to create an opinion, and to provoke a discussion.
Nationalism in Europe has been a main source of troubles in Europe since 1918. And its new revival in the 80's shows that it has not been solved. I think it is quite an anachronism specially when we are trying to build up the European Union. If really we are living in a global world I think thi sidelogy must die, like many others before it.
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Title: Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism by Benedict Anderson ISBN: 0860915468 Publisher: Verso Books Pub. Date: July, 1991 List Price(USD): $20.00 |
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Title: Nations and Nationalism by Ernest Gellner ISBN: 0801492637 Publisher: Cornell Univ Pr Pub. Date: December, 1983 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: The Invention of Tradition by Eric Hobsbawm, Terence Ranger ISBN: 0521437733 Publisher: Cambridge University Press Pub. Date: 31 July, 1992 List Price(USD): $19.00 |
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Title: Nationalism (Oxford Readers) by John Hutchinson, Anthony D. Smith ISBN: 0192892606 Publisher: Oxford Press Pub. Date: February, 1995 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Nationalism and Modernism: A Critical Survey of Recent Theories of Nations and Nationalism by Anthony D. Smith ISBN: 0415063418 Publisher: Routledge Pub. Date: November, 1998 List Price(USD): $36.95 |
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