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A review by riaana
Blood and Belonging: Journeys Into the New Nationalism by Michael Ignatieff
4.0
The book explores the idea of nationalism and nationhood, which should not be assumed synonymous with statehood. I picked it up because a. my interest in Michael Ignatieff, the man who would be Prime Minister if not for his inability to out-maneuvered anyone politically (*sigh*), and b. there was a chapter about Quebec and I hoped it would allow me to better answer people's question of "What's the deal with Quebec, anyway?" here in the US.
The introductory chapter was largely expository, but the following chapters on individual regions (incl. Yugoslavia, Kurdistan, Ukraine) were, thankfully, in more of his journalistic style. He still used a few too many -isms for my taste, though. (Clientism? Really?) It was challenging for me to recall the state of the world as it was when this was written (1995), so I give him the benefit of the doubt for his various forecasts of trouble ahead.
Bottom line: I thought it was a very interesting read, and gave me a lot to think about. If you're interested, you could probably just watch his BBC series upon which the book was based.
The introductory chapter was largely expository, but the following chapters on individual regions (incl. Yugoslavia, Kurdistan, Ukraine) were, thankfully, in more of his journalistic style. He still used a few too many -isms for my taste, though. (Clientism? Really?) It was challenging for me to recall the state of the world as it was when this was written (1995), so I give him the benefit of the doubt for his various forecasts of trouble ahead.
Bottom line: I thought it was a very interesting read, and gave me a lot to think about. If you're interested, you could probably just watch his BBC series upon which the book was based.