Containing Nationalism [Hardcover]

Michael Hechter (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 20, 2000

Nationalism has become the most prevalent source of political conflict and violence in the world today. Scholarship has provided scant guidance for containing the dark side of nationalism--its widely publicized excesses of violence, such as ethnic cleansing and genocide. Based on fundamental theoretical ideas about the formation and solidarity of groups, Containing Nationalism offers a groundbreaking unified explanation of the dynamics of nationalism across the broad sweep of history and geography. Michael Hechter argues that the impetus for the most common type of nationalism arises from the imposition of direct rule in culturally heterogeneous societies--stimulating national identity, reducing the resources of local elites, motivating the mobilization of nationalist opposition to central authorities, and ultimately heightening the demand for sovereignty. Hechter suggests that political institutions that reintroduce indirect rule offer the leaders of modern countries the best available means of containing nationalist violence within their borders.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"An elegant and sweeping account of modern nationalism."--Foreign Affairs

"The most important book about nationalism since Gellner wrote Nations and Nationalism."--The European Sociological Review

"Hechter has rightly closed in on nationalism as a form of collective action rather than principally an idea, emotion, or attitude. No one has made a case as well before."--Charles Tilly, Columbia University

"Hechter elegantly turns tentative hunches into a systematic and cognitively high-powered general theory. This book has the same stature as the acknowledged classics by Ernest Gellner and Benedict Anderson."--John Hall, McGill University and Queen's University, Belfast

"Containing Nationalism is a superb book....Hechter constructs a logically rigorous theoretical framework that manages to be both intuitively appealing and strikingly original."--Alexander Motyl, Rutgers University, Newark

About the Author

Michael Hechter is Research Professor at the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Washington.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (April 20, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0198297424
• ISBN-13: 978-8130902463
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,416,191 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars containing nationalism, October 9, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Containing Nationalism (Hardcover)

It is an analysis of Nationalism. It is an attempts of culturally distinct peoples to attain political self determination.It first defines nationalism then it shows how it is different from imperialism and regionalism.It then tries to explain the causes of nationalism.Nationalism is modern as it is the development of the last two centuries.Nationalism is directly associated with the rise of direct rule and direct rule becomes technically possible after the development of modern communication technology-roads ,rail,steam engine.It then explains the theory of primary state formation and how before 19th century all large states adopted indirect rule because of technical limits to central control. As there is ashift from indirect to direct rule which became possible due to transportation and communication technology still direct rule is not an absolute.More authority of central control over economic,judicial,military,cultural policies gives rise to other types of nationalism these are peripheral natiomalism,unification nationalism,and irredentist nationalism.Nationalism which is characterised by the direct rule gives rise to national identity making cultural distinction more salient.Extreme hierarchial cultural division of labour produces highly salient socias identities.Direct rule also induces demand for national sovereignty which arises by the peripheral nations if economic institutions abn policies of central rule does not benifit them.Lastly ,it explains that nationalism inspires xenophobia, ethnic cleansing ang genocide.This dark side of nationalism can be contained.Institutions providing decentralised decision making, that reintroducing indirect rule or federalism are best available means for containing nationalism