Books, Arts & Manners: The Wealth of Nationalisms

Nationalism: Five Roads to Modernity, by Liah Greenfeld (Harvard, 581 pp., $49.95)

LIBERALS have never really known what to do about nationalism. Their general rule seems to be: when in doubt (which they usually are), denounce it. In their eyes it is something murky, primordial, and sinful, like sex or violence, which if it cannot be eliminated altogether must at least be kept under control. Part of the litany of liberal dinner conversation for the last three or four years has been the claim that, whatever you may say about Communism in Eastern Europe, you have to admit that it did at least keep nationalism in check. Now, according to the standard metaphor cliché, the lid has been taken off the cauldron, and all the ancient nationalistic hatreds are bubbling to the surface again.

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Noel Malcolm

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Nationalism: Five Roads to Modernity, by Liah Greenfeld (Harvard, 581 pp., $49.95)

LIBERALS have never really known what to do about nationalism. Their general rule seems to be: when in doubt (which they usually are), denounce it. In their eyes it is something murky, primordial, and sinful, like sex or violence, which if it cannot be eliminated altogether must at least be kept under control. Part of the litany of liberal dinner conversation for the last three or four years has been the claim that, whatever you may say about Communism in Eastern Europe, you have to admit that it did at least keep nationalism in check. Now, according to the standard metaphor cliché, the lid has been taken off the cauldron, and all the ancient nationalistic hatreds are bubbling to the surface again.