Blood and Belonging
Journeys into the New Nationalism
ISBN10: 0374524483
ISBN13: 9780374524487
Trade Paperback
276 Pages
$24.00
CA$26.50
Until the end of the Cold War, the politics of national identity was confined to isolated incidents of ethnic strife and civil war in distant countries. With the collapse of Communist regimes across Europe and the loosening of the Cold War's clamp on East-West relations, a surge of nationalism swept the globe. In Blood and Belonging, Ignatieff makes an examination of why blood ties—in places as diverse as Yugoslavia, Kurdistan, Northern Ireland, Quebec, Germany, and the former Soviet republics—may be the definitive factor in international relations today. He asks how ethnic pride turned into ethnic cleansing, whether modern citizens can lay the ghosts of a warring past, why—and whether—a people need a state of their own, and why armed struggle might be justified.
Reviews
Praise for Blood and Belonging
"Vivid and readable, [Blood and Belonging] provides unforgettable impressions of societies that are going in the wrong direction on the highway to brotherhood and unity."—David Fromkin, Washington Post Book World
"An extraordinary guide, by a richly talented writer and reporter, to the pustular outbreaks of nationalism that keep marring the smooth complexion we expected the world to show after the Cold War. Ignatieff's eye for the heartbreaking detail makes the seeming madness of recent news stories comprehensible in human terms."—Robert MacNeil
"An immensely impressive meditation on nationalism in the post-Cold War world . . . powerful and subtle [with] a sublime understanding of the histories and politics of Croatia and Serbia, Germany, Ukraine, Quebec, Kurdistan, and Northern Ireland."—Library Journal
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BOOK EXCERPTS
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Blood and Belonging
SIX JOURNEYS
CHAPTER 1
Croatia and Serbia
THE ANCIEN REGIME
WILD strawberries were served in a silver cup at breakfast, I remember, followed by hot rolls with apricot...