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Florian Bieber. Debating nationalism: The global spread of nations. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2020. 246 pp. £17.99 (pbk), £49.50 (hbk).
Nations and Nationalism ( IF 2.058 ) Pub Date : 2021-04-06 , DOI: 10.1111/nana.12725
Eric Storm 1
Affiliation  

Debating Nationalism provides a succinct and readable overview of recent developments within the field of nationalism studies. Such a short introduction according to the author ‘cannot claim to be either comprehensive or groundbreaking’ (p. 19). In fact, Florian Bieber basically adopts Michael Billig's argument from Banal Nationalism, distinguishing between ‘latent’ and ‘virulent’ nationalism, while putting particular emphasis on the mechanisms by which people are included and excluded from the nation.

The book is organized thematically, and all chapters deal with some of the most important scholarly debates on that particular topic. Chapters 2 until 5 provide a brief historical overview, while exploring respectively the origins of nationalism, the spread of nationalism in Europe, decolonization and the nation‐building process. Chapters 6, 7, and 8 focus on inclusion and exclusion, treating ethnic conflict, migration and the recent rise of populism. The most original and probably also most contested interpretation can be found in the chapter on populism and the new nationalism of the 2010s, in which he argues—based on worldwide surveys—that there is no ‘discernible global increase of nationalist, isolationist tendencies’. However, he admits that nationalism has become more visible, due to the effective mobilization of nationalist feelings by populist parties and politicians such as Donald Trump, Narendra Modi and Marine Le Pen. This can be explained in part because those who before chose to remain silent now feel encouraged to express their ‘nationalist or xenophobic views’ (pp. 198–202).

The author is a political scientist and historian and an expert on nationalism and ethnic conflict in Yugoslavia and its successor states. As a consequence, the chapters on current issues are more convincing than the somewhat conventional overview of the rise and dissemination of the nation‐state from the 18th century onwards. In the first chapters, he even conflates ethnically defined nations and the nation‐state as a particular form of statehood based on popular sovereignty, arguing for instance that after the First World War, many new countries in East‐Central Europe were—because of their multiethnic makeup—‘far from being nation‐states in anything but name’ (p. 56), thus implicitly taking the nationalist view as a normative starting point. Fortunately, such dubious views are very rare in the rest of the book.

Although the author analyses both ‘latent’ and ‘virulent’ forms, the book is titled towards the more ‘hot’ expressions of nationalism. There is only one short subsection on ‘everyday nationalism’, while the more virulent aspects of nationalism, such as violent separatist movements, racism and the exclusion of migrants and ethnic minorities are discussed more extensively. Even though he pays much attention to nationalism in the current day world, he does not expand upon the crucial role of sports, popular culture, commercial television and the internet in reconfirming national identities, and maybe even hardening the boundaries between them.

Probably the best aspect of the book is its very didactic tone. Bieber really makes an effort to explain developments and theories to those who are new to the field, and the book will especially be useful to undergraduate students in a variety of disciplines, such as political science, history, nationalism studies and international relations. The text also contains 14 short primary sources, mainly legal texts and speeches by prominent nationalist leaders, while a final chapter provides suggestions for further reading. It can be used together with more extensive historical overviews, such as The Oxford Handbook of the History of Nationalism (2013) or Derek Hastings's more concise and focused Nationalism in Modern Europe (2018). For more challenging overviews of the theoretical debates, I would suggest Umut Özkirimli's revised Theories of Nationalism (2017), the edited volume Writing the History of Nationalism (2019), or the original interpretation of the rise of nations and nationalism in Siniša Malešević's Grounded Nationalisms (2019).



中文翻译:

弗洛里安·比伯(Florian Bieber)。辩论民族主义:国家的全球传播。伦敦:布鲁姆斯伯里学院(Bloomsbury Academic),2020年。246页,每磅£17.99(英镑),每磅£49.50(HBB)。

辩论民族主义为民族主义研究领域的最新发展提供了简洁明了的概述。作者的这样简短的介绍“不能声称是全面的或开创性的”(第19页)。实际上,弗洛里安·比伯(Florian Bieber)基本上采用了迈克·比利格(Michael Billig)的Banal民族主义的论点,区分了“潜伏的”和“有毒的”民族主义,同时特别强调了将人们纳入国家或从国家中排除的机制。

这本书是按主题组织的,所有章节都涉及有关该特定主题的一些最重要的学术辩论。第2章至第5章简要概述了历史,同时分别探讨了民族主义的起源,民族主义在欧洲的传播,非殖民化和建国进程。第6、7和8章集中于包容和排斥,处理种族冲突,移民和近期民粹主义的兴起。关于民粹主义和2010年代的新民族主义的章节中可以找到最原始,也可能是最有争议的解释,他在该章中基于全球调查认为,“没有任何明显的全球民族主义,孤立主义倾向在增加”。但是,他承认民族主义已经越来越明显,由于唐纳德·特朗普(Donald Trump),纳伦德拉·莫迪(Narendra Modi)和马林·勒庞(Marine Le Pen)等民粹党派和政客有效地动员了民族主义情绪。可以部分解释这是因为那些以前选择保持沉默的人现在受到鼓励表达他们的“民族主义或仇外观点”(第198-202页)。

作者是一名政治科学家和历史学家,也是南斯拉夫及其后继国家的民族主义和族裔冲突专家。结果,当前问题的章节比18世纪以来民族国家的崛起和传播的常规概述更具说服力。在第一章中,他甚至夸大了民族定义的国家和民族国家作为基于人民主权的一种特殊形式的国家地位,例如,在第一次世界大战后,东欧中欧许多新国家都因为它们多民族构成-“除了名字外,绝没有任何民族国家”(第56页),因此隐含地将民族主义的观点作为规范的出发点。幸运的是,这种可疑的观点在本书的其余部分中很少见。

尽管作者分析了“潜在”和“有毒”两种形式,但本书的标题是民族主义的更“热”表达。关于“日常民族主义”只有一个简短的小节,而对民族主义更为激烈的方面,例如暴力的分离主义运动,种族主义以及对移民和少数民族的排斥等,则进行了更广泛的讨论。尽管他在当今世界上非常关注民族主义,但他并没有扩大体育,大众文化,商业电视和互联网在重新确认民族身份,甚至可能加强两者之间的界限方面的关键作用。

这本书最好的方面可能是它的教学风格。Bieber确实努力向该领域的新手解释发展和理论,这本书对于政治学,历史学,民族主义研究和国际关系等各个学科的本科生尤其有用。该文本还包含14个简短的主要资源,主要是法律文本和著名民族主义者的演讲,而最后一章则为进一步阅读提供了建议。它可以与更广泛的历史概述一起使用,例如《牛津民族主义历史手册》(2013年)或德里克·黑斯廷斯(Derek Hastings)在现代欧洲更为简明扼要的民族主义(2018)。有关理论辩论的更具挑战性的概述,我建议乌穆特·奥斯基里姆利(UmutÖzkirimli)修订后的《民族主义理论》(2017年),《民族主义史》(2019年)编辑集,或对SinišaMalešević的《扎根的民族主义》中民族崛起和民族主义的原始解释(2019)。

更新日期:2021-04-08
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