Nationalism and the Politics of Culture in Quebec (New Directions in Anthro Writing) [Paperback]

Richard Handler (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Handler, an anthropologist, analyzes the rise and decline of the Quebec Independence party (Parti Quebecois), including its victory in the 1976 provincial election and the failure of its 1980 independence referendum. He attributes the party's failure to a seemingly inevitable drift from traditional culture that the provincial government was not able to stop. He argues that the nationalist movement's mistake was its attempt to maintain within fixed epistemological boundaries a distinct, homogeneous culture. A major problem involved the impact of English on the French language. Contributing to the problem was a decline in the French Canadian birthrate and the tendency of immigrant minorities to want to learn English rather than French. An interesting philosophical approach. Recommended for informed readers and social scientists interested in hermeneutics. David Steiniche, Missouri Western State Coll., St. Joseph
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

“An important book, one which will repay reading and re-reading by students of social science, of nationalism, and of Quebec.”—Queen’s Quarterly

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press (February 15, 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0299115143
• ISBN-13: 978-0299115142
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #134,965 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #44 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Government     > State & Local Government

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1 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Confession, September 29, 2003

By 

bored movie-goer (NYC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nationalism and the Politics of Culture in Quebec (New Directions in Anthro Writing) (Paperback)

Look, I am biased. I took his class in my freshman year of college. But I was a poor student who needed to fufill a humanities credit, and from the description of the course booklet, it seemed vaguely interesting.

But there are a few things you need to consider about me, the reviewer:

Due to my overwhelming and stupid class schedule, I was sleeping poorly and thus (since his class was in the morning) I either skipped it or slept in the back of the lecture hall. But I made sure to read this very book and attend the TA sessions.
Despite my lack of time spent on the class itself, I managed to learn quite a lot of things from this book and the professor, Richard Handler.

One, I learned about the contradictory nature of "perservation" and the use of assigning organic qualities to a "culture." I am sure other people can go into this with more eloquence than I can provide at the present time (particularly since I have not read the book in 6 years, but I will correct that.) I also learned about the Western chauvinism that leads people to paint "primitive cultures" as "Stone Age" and not as "Contemporary."

Anyhow, buy the darn book, people. Maybe you can learn something. Or if you are going to UVA, take his class. He's a great professor. Yeah, I slept through quite a bit of his lectures, but he always managed to wake me up when he started to get angry at the injustices of the world and then he would start to curse and rant and yell. Dang, I would think. This prof really believes in his stuff. He's passionate for one thing, and I think that's a good thing in a professor, a writer, and a thinker.