Anthony Smith D. Smith, Nationalism: Theory, Ideology, History. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2001, 182 pp.
This is an easy book to review. It will instantly take its place
as the best general introduction to the subject. Still, it is worth
underlining that the book has a particular character. It is less an
attempt to reconstruct the social world of nationalism than an incisive,
terminologically sophisticated analysis of the way in which a player
assesses the state of play of the game to which he has contributed
so much. Coverage of other positions is fair, interesting and very
nearly exhaustive — albeit Smith really should take the work of
David Laitin into account. If all this will attract readers, so too
should the fact that Smith goes a little beyond the position that he
has outlined in his recent spate of publications; differently put, we
have in an encapsulated form Smith's fine tuning of his own theory. The
ethno-symbolism he now espouses is solidly Durkheimian, with the nation
seen as being nothing less than sacred. But Weber is with us too:
ur-nationalism seems to be that of the Jews, with very great admiration
being shown to Ancient Judaism.
McGill University
