The Necessary Nation (ebook)

Argumento de The Necessary Nation (ebook)

"This is an exceptionally erudite and thoughtful book on one of the major subjects of our day--the future of the nation-state. Gregory Jusdanis offers a wide-ranging discussion of culture and nationalism that raises important questions for cultural critics, political theorists, and historians, among other readers."--Barry S. Strauss, Cornell University

"Thoughtful, balanced and urgent, Jusdanis's study acknowledges the double-edged nature of nationalism. It resists the wholesale rejection of nationalism that has become characteristic of an historically ill-informed, conceptually impoverished, and politically correct anti-nationalism. Drawing upon a range of disciplines and national histories, he offers a rich and flexible discourse of nationalism and its others."--Khachig Tololyan, Wesleyan University

"Gregory Jusdanis has written a provocative book that challenges the nearly universal opinion among cultural studies and postcolonial theorists that the nation-form must and should be overcome. Strongly critical of the presentist biases of much current writing on the nation, Jusdanis provides an historical theory essential to all those interested in a variety of important problems: the role of the intellectual in nation-building; the nation in the era of globalization; the nation in a post-colonial world; and the origins of nationalism. Daring and lucid at the same time, The Necessary Nation is basic reading for scholars in all the humanistic and social science disciplines."--Paul A. Bové, University of Pittsburgh0ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ix
INTRODUCTION 3
CHAPTER ONE On Nationalism 17
The Union of Nation and State 18
Nations as Self-Institutions 23
Emotional Attachments 28
Ancient Roots 36
National Integration 39
CHAPTER TWO The Autonomy of Culture? 44
Culture as a Totality 46
Culture as Way of Life 49
Absolute States and Religious Wars 52
Culture as Secondary Agent 55
Nationalism as a Reactive Force 58
The Chicken or the Egg? 65
CHAPTER THREE The Bastion of National Culture 71
Fortress Culture 77
National Culture in Aspiration 83
Intellectuals and Class Interest 86
The Perils of Comparisons 89
National Intellectuals 93
CHAPTER FOUR Progress and Belatedness 102
Being Late 105
Catching Up 108
Greece: Postcolonial Narratives 110
Of Backwardness and Change 114
The Greek Culture Wars 118
The Discovery of Tardiness 122
CHAPTER FIVE Political Nations 134
England 137
Canada 143
Brazil 148
Egypt 151
The United States 155
Civic Identity 162
CHAPTER SIX The End of Identities? 166
The Disconnecting of America 166
Of Two Multiculturalisms 169
Racial Panethnicities 177
Culture, Culture Everywhere 185
Does Globalization Spell the End? 192
CHAPTER SEVEN Federal Unions 197
Private Identities, Public Assimilation 201
Endless Diaspora 205
Liberal Nationalism 211
Federalism 215
REFERENCES 225
INDEX 259