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Title: Faith in Nation: Exclusionary Origins of Nationalism by Anthony W. Marx ISBN: 0-19-515482-7 Publisher: Oxford Press Pub. Date: May, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $26.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 5 (3 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Historical Revisonism at it's finest
Comment: An iconoclastic work, a difficult read whose implications are reflected in the news headlines of today. The author locates the roots of European nationalism in its modern, tolerant form, in the religious exclusions and passions of the late 15th century. He suggests that modern nationalism, rather than being caused by a decline of religious belief is the result of the use of religious passions to mobilize populations to engage with their respective elites. This engagement took the form of persecution and exclusion of minorities. The work compares Spain, where the state institutionalized the phenomena in the Inquisition, France, where the state attempted to use anti Protestant sentiments against the Huguenots and Britain where Kings Charles I and James attempted to overcome the anti-Catholic sentiment being championed by members of parliament. In the case of Spain the lack of religious violence and passion lead to incomplete nation formation while the most violent nation, France, became the most egalitarian nation. An interesting effort would be to extend the analysis to post colonial states in Africa and the Middle East.
Also recommended:
Nations and Nationalism: Ernest Gellner
Nations and Nationalism since 1780: E.J. Hobsbawn
Propaganda:The Formation of Men's Attitudes:Jacques Ellul
Rating: 5
Summary: A difficult read but worth the effort
Comment: Anthony Marx, who was recently appointed president of Amherst College, exposes the clay feet of Western nationalism in his 2003 work, FAITH IN NATION. In this ground breaking work of revisionist political history and anyalysis, Marx rejects the tradionally held asumptions regarding the originis of Western nationalism. Marx goes about systemically challenging traditional scholarship that places the roots on nationalism 18th and 19th century political engagement, allegiance to the secular power of emerging states, liberalism, torelation and inclusiveness. According to Marx, nationalism was not a product of the Enlightenment. Its birth did not coincide with the rights and toleration of England's constituional monarchy and it was not epitomized by the motto of the French Revolution, "liberty, equality and fraternity."
Through the use of a comparative study of the three great Atlantic seaboard powers of early modern Western Europe, Spain, France and England, Marx shows that the origins of nationalism are in fact sinister, illiberal rather than liberal. Going back two centuries earlier than traditional thought and relying on original sources and the analysis of current day scholars, he revelas the dirty little secret that Western nationalism evolved through a process of exclusion rather than inclusion and form internal discord over religion, usually in the form of religious fanaticism. He shows the church as a tool to facilitate the exclusion of Jews in Spain, the oppression of religious sects in England and France, and sometimes murder so that like minded people could feel a sense of commonality outside the local community and for an allegiance to a central government. Although each of the countries under consideration have different histories, which Marx recounts for the reader, he shows similarities amoung them in terms of structural logic.
Essention to the process of nation buidling is the transfer of power from local to central rulers. While arguing that the most effective way of transferring that power was religion and fanatical passions, Marx also shows that in most cases this process was not the result of spontaneous social forces but effectuated by policies initiated by powerful fources at the center of the society that ultimately controlled the periphery. Absolutist rulers of the early modern European states all shared a desire to build coherence and loyalty of their subjects in order to bolster their own authority. However, the more the populace below became engaged, the more control from above was lost. He demonstrates a shifting of social controls from the center to the periphery and occasions when the centter totally lost control, suas as the Saint Bartholomew's massacre.
At first glance, FAITH IN NATION is a difficult and complex work. However, once the reader comprehends the basic thesis of the book, he is thrown into a challenging and fascinating discussion of the roots of contemporary world politics which culminates in the final chapter in the discussion of St. Bartholomew as the possible patron saint of nationalism. The conlusion is grim but insightful. Marx subtletly raises imponderable questions regarding the origins of the Holocaust, ethnic cleansing in Albania and tribal wars in Ruaunda and even race relations in the US. In this post 9/11 work, where Americans ponder the question of why parts of the world hate us and what would drive others to seek the destruction of our way of life, Marx raises fascinating questions for discussion and debate. His scholarshp challenges traditional thinking on nationalism but it goes further than that. It challenges the Western reader to reconsider their heritage and perspective on the world in which we live and question the theological backgrounds of our world.
Rating: 5
Summary: Praise for FAITH IN NATION
Comment: "Marx has a case to argue and he argues it forcefully, thereby significantly advancing a debate that has tended, in recent years, to languish in a smug and unquestioning liberal consensus. A major contribution to the interdisciplinary literature on nationalism."
Partha Chatterjee, Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta
"Rejecting almost every previous account of nationalism - including mine! -- Anthony Marx provocatively locates its European origins in rulers' strategies of building support for their regimes by ruthless labeling and exclusion of those regimes' enemies. Marx's work will make students of contemporary nationalism rethink their subject."
Charles Tilly, author of From Mobilization to Revolution and Durable Inequality
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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: 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: 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: Stories of Peoplehood : The Politics and Morals of Political Membership by Rogers M. Smith, Ian Shapiro ISBN: 0521520037 Publisher: Cambridge University Press Pub. Date: 19 June, 2003 List Price(USD): $22.00 |
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Title: Empire: The Rise and Demise of the British World Order and the Lessons for Global Power by Niall Ferguson ISBN: 0465023282 Publisher: Basic Books Pub. Date: 01 April, 2003 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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