Really Existing Nationalisms : A Post-Communist View from Marx and Engels

Benner, Erica

ISBN 10: 0198279590 / ISBN 13: 9780198279594

Editore: Clarendon Press, 1995

Riguardo questo articolo

Unread book in perfect condition.

Codice articolo 69359

Dati bibliografici

• Titolo: Really Existing Nationalisms : A Post-Communist View from Marx and Engels
• Editore: Clarendon Press
• Data di pubblicazione: 1995
• Lingua: Inglese
• ISBN 10: 0198279590
• ISBN 13: 9780198279594
• Rilegatura: Rilegato
• Condizione: As New

Descrizione articolo

Riassunto

This is an impressive re-examination of the theories of Marx and Engels on nationalism. The author challenges the conventional view that Marx and Engels lacked the theoretical resources needed to understand nationalism. It argues that the two men had a much better explanatory grasp of national phenomena than is usually supposed, and that the reasoning behind their policy towards specific national movements was often subtle and sensitive to the ethical issues at stake.
Instead of offering an insular `Marxian' account of nationalism, the book identifies arguments in Marx and Engels' writings that can help us to think more clearly about national identity and conflict today. These arguments are located in a distinctive theory of politics, which enabled the authors to analyse the relations between nationalism and other social movements and to discriminate between democratic, outward-looking national programmes and authoritarian, ethnocentric nationalism. The book suggest that this approach improves on accounts which stress the `independent' force of nationality over other concerns, and on thos that fail to analyse the complex motives of nationalist actors. It concludes by criticizing these `methodological nationalist' assumptions and `post-nationalist' views about the future role of nationalism, showing how some of marx and Engles' arguments can yield a better understanding of the national movements that have emerged in the wake of `really existing socialism'.

Informazioni sull?autore

Erica Benner was formerly lecturer in Political Philosophy at Warsaw University