Nationalism by Ernest Gellner - Aug 1998

Phoenix, Aug 1998. New edition. Paperback. For the great philosopher, Ernest Gellner, nationalism (the principle which maintains that homogeneity of culture is the basic social and political bond) is an offspring of Romanticism, which was a reaction against the Enlightenment and the coldness of Reason.\r\nFor the Romantics, man was made by his roots, by his cultural specificity, and not by (universal) reason. Translated into politics, this means the congruence between the political and the ethnic unit, or a `nation-state'. \r\n\r\nNationalism appears only in the third stage of the evolution of mankind, in the scientific/industrial society (after foraging and agriculture).\r\nScientifically, it was heavily boosted by Darwinism and its theory of biological diversification.\r\nPhilosophically, it was aided by `Protestant-type' religion, where every man is a priest in direct contact with his God. The Protestants translated the Holy Scriptures into the vernacular, which became the `national' language of all civil servants (the bureaucracy).\r\n\r\nNationalism has been one of the cardinal reasons of all the bloodshed in the world in the last two centuries (`Men have been impartial in their hate'). Therefore, Ernest Gellner stresses rightly that mankind needs supranational and super-ethnic authorities in order to prevent further disasters.\r\n\r\nThis book is a must read for all those interested in the history of mankind.