living in the US now, I felt compelled to read Michael Billig's Banal
Nationalism which is a great book. It's not a Marxist theory of the
nation-state (will need to read Bauer, Rosdolsky, Horace Davis as
well as critics such as Rudolf Rocker); but it is a compelling
rhetorical analyis of how national identity is assumed in everyday
discourse and how the very idea of society comes to be
interchangeable with nations. The book began as critique of leading
American philosopher Richard Rorty's call for leftist patriotism.
I recommend this book very highly. Again it is not a materialist
analysis but a discursive critique.
Best, Rakesh
Banal Nationalism
by Michael Billig
Paperback - 208 pages (August 1995)
Sage Publications; ISBN: 0803975252 ;
Dimensions (in inches): 0.61 x 9.22 x 6.14
Amazon review:
Essential reading, May 17, 2001
Reviewer: Edward Bosnar (see
more about me) from Zagreb, Croatia
This book should not be so
hard to get, and it definitely should be more widely read - and not
just by
scholars. In contrast to the
oft-mentioned "hot" nationalisms which seem to plague far-off or
obscure places
like the Balkans, the Caucuses, etc.,
Billig introduces the concept of "banal" nationalism to refer to
nationalism and the way
this form of identity politics is
reinforced in stable, affluent and apparently "anational" societies,
such as Great Britain or the
United States. This is not a consideration
of fringe groups, but of societies as a whole. Billig conducts an
exemplary
analysis into how identification with
one's nation or country is reinforced on a daily basis in the most
subtle and
unnoticeable (and thus banal) manner: the
weather maps in newspapers or on television which show one's country
highlighted in a different color, currency
or postage stamp containing patriotic motifs, pledging allegiance to
the flag every
morning by school children, etc. Billig's
point is that this everyday, almost unconscious intake of
psychologically loaded
signs, symbols and signals can be one
factor in explaining how easily people come to adopt irrational
openly "patriotic"
ways of thinking in times of crisis,
whether real or perceived (as anyone who lived in the U.S. during the
Gulf War can
attest to). There is also a good critique
of the dichotomy created between "civic" and "ethnic" nationalism, in
that those who
insist on this dichotomy usually tend to
view the former as "good" while the latter is definitely "bad."
Billig points out that
both have the potential to become
dangerously irrational.
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