Slavophile Thought And the Politics of Cultural Nationalism (Suny Series in National Identities) [Hardcover]

Susanna Rabow-edling (Author)

Book Description

Series: Suny Series in National Identities | Publication Date: July 13, 2006

Examines the origins of Russian nationalism and its relationship to the West.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Susanna Rabow-Edling examines the first theory of the Russian nation, formulated by the Slavophiles in the second quarter of the nineteenth century, and its relationship to the West. Using cultural nationalism as a tool for understanding Slavophile thinking, she argues that a Russian national identity was not shaped in opposition to Europe in order to separate Russia from the West. Rather, it originated as an attempt to counter the feeling of cultural backwardness among Russian intellectuals by making it possible for Russian culture to assume a leading role in the universal progress of humanity. This reinterpretation of Slavophile ideas about the Russian nation offers a more complex image of the role of Europe and the West in shaping a Russian national identity.

"Rabow-Edling undertakes an important and needed task, namely the reexamination of the hoary Westernizer/Slavophile debate in light of current thinking about nationalism. The result is an absorbing, intelligent, succinct, and utterly persuasive description of the Slavophiles and their place in Russian and European ideas. She supplies evidence that Russian experience was fundamentally within the realm of European history—a controversial idea that makes the book exciting reading." — Susan P. McCaffray, coeditor of Russia in the European Context, 1789–1914: A Member of the Family

"This is a very fine study. It makes excellent use of the idea of cultural nationalism to illuminate some of the most distinctive and paradoxical aspects of Russian Slavophilism, such as its simultaneous rejection of Western rationalism and celebration of enlightenment." — Bernard Yack, author of The Longing for Total Revolution: Philosophic Sources of Social Discontent from Rousseau to Marx and Nietzsche

About the Author

Susanna Rabow-Edling, is Lecturer at the Department of East European Studies at Uppsala University in Sweden.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 183 pages
• Publisher: State Univ of New York Pr (July 13, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0791466930
• ISBN-13: 978-0791466933
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,210,436 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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