A history blog, focusing primarily on the author's research and reading in American (particularly colonial, Revolutionary, and Native American) history.
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Quote of the Month
"Nationalism is the illegitimate marriage of patriotism with a habitual inferiority complex." - John Lukacs, The Legacy of the Second World War (New Haven, 2010), p. 11. Take that, Benedict Anderson!
You tell 'em, David! I guess. I really should read this book, yes? Not only for my own intellectual enrichment but also to forstall the potential snarky reviewer's remark if this book does not appear in my bibliography, no? Can I truly understand Choctaw nation-building in post-removal MS if I have not read this tome? Advise, please.
You certainly should read it, Katherine, if only to damn it more thoroughly than those who have only read the title (which, I suspect, describes at least two-thirds of the people who cite Anderson in their own work). I'm still struggling to figure out what a "nation" is, but Adam Zamoyski's book HOLY MADNESS (2000) has helped me clarify some of my own thinking.
You tell 'em, David! I guess. I really should read this book, yes? Not only for my own intellectual enrichment but also to forstall the potential snarky reviewer's remark if this book does not appear in my bibliography, no? Can I truly understand Choctaw nation-building in post-removal MS if I have not read this tome? Advise, please.
ReplyDeleteHappy Trails,
KO
You certainly should read it, Katherine, if only to damn it more thoroughly than those who have only read the title (which, I suspect, describes at least two-thirds of the people who cite Anderson in their own work). I'm still struggling to figure out what a "nation" is, but Adam Zamoyski's book HOLY MADNESS (2000) has helped me clarify some of my own thinking.
ReplyDeleteTry this one on for size: "Nationalism is power hunger tempered by self-deception." ~George Orwell
ReplyDelete