The Idea of Nationalism
By
NATIONALISM is the private glory and the public disease of our time. Professor Kohn and other students say that it is no older than the second half of the eighteenth century. Then it suddenly emerged as a dynamic expression of secular, democratic sentiment and, in a measure, of interest in economic forces present in industrialism. Nationalism did not, however, whisk in from a distant planet or from thitherto unsuspected dark corners of the human spirit. Its roots were in the past, and with those roots Professor Kohn’s book is concerned.
In Israel and Hellas, gifted peoples identified themselves with religion and culture. But despite an element of nationalism in each, the trend in both was toward a “universal message” for all men. During the Renaissance, Hellas was reinterpreted for Europe; and it was the function of the Reformation to place strong emphasis on important aspects of Israelitic tradition. But though the centuries in which these stirring changes took place witnessed an intensification of patriotic feeling and, in particular, of delight in vernacular speech, they were not, Professor Kohn believes, eras of simon-pure nationalism. In France, England, and Germany, the movement towards the great nationalistic French Revolution was not a gradual one but a leap to a conclusion. Professor Kohn stresses the emergence of American nationalism after the Revolution, and he is a very effective exponent of the view that the New World did much to reshape the Old.
The canvas here is vast, including not only the countries of the West but also those of the Near East and the East. For the most part Professor Kohn carries his story along without bogging down under the weight of allusion, reference, and citation. Despite a few passages which bring traffic to a halt, and a general tendency to stylistic eccentricity, the book is a masterly historical essay which really deserves to be called tolerant and discerning, wellinformed and illuminating. Brilliant passages quite win over the reader by reason of their insight; opposed to them are thin sections that reveal Professor Kohn in the act of succumbing to a thesis.
The book will need revision ten years hence. But for the moment it is the best treatise you can find on an important subject, Macmillan, $7.50.
GEORGE N. SHUSTER