The Wrath of Nations (First Printing) Civilization and the Furies of Nationalism

The author of National Book Award nominee Barbarian Sentiments and a frequent contributor to The New Yorker traces nationalism's origins and shows its threatening, divisive power in the post-Cold War world. National ad/promo.

Pfaff ( Barbarian Sentiments ) calls nationalism the most powerful political force of our century. In this valuable historical survey, he identifiesresurgent nationalism as the phenomenon that destroyed Western imperialism, undermined colonial systems and defeated the totalitarian internationalism of Marxist-Leninism. Pfaff argues against the opinion that Nazism was also an international movement because the Nazis envisaged Europe's unification under Nordic peoples. The Nazi threat, in his analysis, was overcome through resistance fueled largely by nationalist feelings. Pfaff, who writes regularly for the New Yorker , considers American nationalism as a force capable of great altruism but also of vindictive violence. Ranging from the spread of Islamic fundamentalism to the Yugoslav War, this clear-sighted report highlights the potential of nationalism for progressive change or irrational hatred and chauvinist aggression. History Book Club alternate; author tour.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

A timely look at nationalism, a phenomenon more often noted than analyzed, by Pfaff (Barbarian Sentiments, 1989, etc.), longtime political commentator for The New Yorker, The International Herald Tribune, and The Los Angeles Times. Pfaff believes that nationalism has been the most powerful force of the 20th century--and that it will probably remain so in the 21st. In his judgment, nationalism destroyed Nazism and Communism, as well as imperialism and the colonial system. Yet nationalism is a comparatively modern phenomenon; the original nations were dynastic, with no ethnic base. Indeed, Pfaff points out, the process by which nations have evolved appears almost accidental, and, while nationalism now seems almost a primordial force, it was in fact the product of the European Romanticism of the 19th century. Surprisingly, the author sees little nationalism in the conventional political sense at work in Asia, Africa, or the Middle East. In Asia, it's the continuity of non-Western civilization that dominates, while in Africa, local and tribal loyalty holds sway. Meanwhile, the nations of the Middle East lack historical roots, and Islamic fundamentalism has triumphed, at least in part, because of the very failure of secular nationalism. Pfaff sees a threat in such fundamentalism, though he does not see it as expansionist; but he's most concerned about the failure of the European Community to deal with the ethnic nationalism manifesting in the former Yugoslavia. The author regards the bloody combat there as a crucial blow to the ideals and accomplishments of liberal internationalism, including the UN. Throughout, Pfaff is persuasive, with the lone and curious exception of his consideration of the US itself--where, he says, the South has ``now mostly gone Snopes, to beer and a money-making vulgar patriotism.'' Urbane and intelligent: a useful analysis of a rapidly changing phenomenon. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Unlike Daniel Patrick Moynihan's Pandaemonium ( LJ 5/1/93), which is as much a foreign policy prescription as a literate discussion of the phenomenon of nationalism, Pfaff's work is a forbidding intellectual overview of the concept of nation and its place in the pantheon of world politics. Meticulously researched, this book is an excellent introduction to ethnopolitics for undergraduates and graduate students alike. Pfaff argues that nationalism is perhaps the great force in contemporary international politics and that it has survived Marxism, which was born out of the same liberal tradition. Resisting the centripetal pull of internationalism, nationalism is a visceral, centrifugal reaction that defies and disrupts civil relations among states: its examples include the carnage in Bosnia. Pfaff's bibliography contains many classic works on the topic and provides an excellent resource for students. Recommended for academic and larger public libraries.
- Joseph P. Parsons, Columbia Coll., Chicago
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Nationalism was originally a liberal force released by the French Revolution. No empire--dynastic, nationalistic (British and French), fascistic, or communistic--has stood up to it. If Woodrow Wilson's ideals tried to codify its progressive origins and closet it within international diplomatic organizations, the bitter failure of that attempt--seen in Nazi Germany's rampages and now in the bloodbath in the South Slav state that Wilson's experts designed--has called forth many able commentators to interpret such elemental force. Pfaff's writings, including Barbarian Sentiments (1989), have earned him a reputation as an astute, historically steeped columnist concerned with nationalism's origins, its many faces--and, sometimes, its fanatical forms. From his expatriate perch in Paris, Pfaff delivers the global view, covering Islamic nationalism's, origins in the conflicts between the Ottoman Empire and the West; the legacy of the Hapsburg Empire; America's unique brand of national self-esteem; and the faint imitations of the nation-state found in Africa and on the periphery of China and Japan. Although Pfaff is coy on predictions, his cosmopolitan conciseness merits wide attention, especially as this essay leaves the reader with quasi-apocalyptic expectations for the future. Gilbert Taylor