Global Convulsions

Race, Ethnicity, and Nationalism at the End of the Twentieth Century

Edited by Winston A. Van Horne

Subjects: Political Science
Series: SUNY series, The Social Context of Education
Paperback : 9780791432365, 364 pages, January 1997
Hardcover : 9780791432358, 364 pages, February 1997

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Table of contents

List of Figures

List of Tables

Foreword
Carol Edler Baumann

Acknowledgments

About the Editor and Contributors

Introduction
Winston A. Van Horne

Part I. Race, Ethnicity, and Nationalism: Concepts and Images

1. Race and Biology
Linda Vigilant

2. The Bell Curve: A Cross-Century Tradition Concerning Race and Intellect
Winston A. Van Horne

3. Race in History
Martin Bernal

4. Concepts of Nationalism in History
Brian E. Porter

5. Cultural Foundations of Ethnonationalism: The Role of Religion
Martin E. Marty

6. Cultural Nationalism and "internationalization" in Contemporary Japan
Kosaku Yoshino

Part II: National Identity and the Struggle for National Rights

7. Religion and Identity in Northern Ireland
Marianne Elliott

8. Israel and Palestinian Statehood
Galia Golan

9. Palestinian Statehood
Muhammad Hallaj

10. Whither the Kurds?
George S. Harris

Part III: Nationalism and the Crisis of the Multiethnic/Multinational State

11. The Relentless Pursuit of the National State: Reflections on Soviet and Post-Soviet Experiences
Mark R. Beissinger

12. Nationality Questions in the Baltic: The Lithuanian Example
Alred Erich Senn

13. Ethnonationalism and the Disintegration of Yugoslavia
Robin Alison Remington

14. China and the Containment of Ethnonationalism
David D. Buck

15. Political Ethnicity and State-Building in Nigeria
Claude Ake

16. Canada and the Challenge of the Quebec Independence Movement
Marc V. Levine

Epilogue
Winston A. Van Horne

Index of Persons, Places, and Organizations

Subject Index

Addresses issues concerning race, ethnicity, and nationlism in both their domestic and international dimension.

Description

Global Convulsions affords the reader an array of observations, data, and insights pertaining to both local and global events around the issues of race, ethnicity and nationalism at the end of the twentieth century. It scrutinizes closely the phenomenon of race in both historical and scientific contexts, and calls out a range of sociohistorical forces that have engendered ethnicity and nationalism. Through case studies, the contributors bring into sharp focus an array of ethnic cleavages, the difficulty of the struggle for national rights where language and religion draw a hard ethnic divide, and the actual corrosiveness of ethnicity and nationalism on the state.

The enduring value of Global Convulsions lies in its global reach and the patterns that it calls out. It makes plain that the state is no salvation in relation to national chauvinism, ethnic exclusivism, and/or racial paranoia. Indeed, the state, if not the cause, is often a consummative force perpetuating these phenomena. Still, according to the contributors to this volume, the state has much potential to transcend the divides of race, ethnicity, and nationalism. And so, in Global Convulsions does one discern the possibility of "us/them" becoming "us together. "

Reviews

"Sectarianism, ethnonationalism, and racialism have divided human populations for centuries, yet, these fabricated, unnecessary, and dangerous formations are rarely addressed in global terms. Global Convulsions redefines the problem in a cross-disciplinary confrontation with the horrors of convulsions. " -- Leonard Harris, Purdue University

The enduring value of Global Convulsions lies in its global reach and the patterns that it calls out. It makes plain that the state is no salvation in relation to national chauvinism, ethnic exclusivism, and/or racial paranoia. Indeed, the state, if not the cause, is often a consummative force perpetuating these phenomena. Still, according to the contributors to this volume, the state has much potential to transcend the divides of race, ethnicity, and nationalism. And so, in Global Convulsions does one discern the possibility of "us/them" becoming "us together. "

"The strengths of this book are subject matter and timing. The editor has assembled a most exceptional group of authors whose individual chapters blend together nicely and provide both perspective as well as prescription for a range of issues and concerns that glare at us from the pages of contemporary events and history. Nationalism and its progeny--xenophobia, racism, anti-Semitism--are again primary issues for national and international discussion, and this book represents an outstanding contribution to that discussion. " -- James F. Barnes, Ohio University