Take a photo of a barcode or cover
beachybookstack 's review for:
Notes on Nationalism
by George Orwell
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Written in very learned Englishman prose, it might be a bit much for some to get through but none of what Orwell has written is unfamiliar decades later. He lays out the adversarial nature of what he decides to term as "nationalism" in politics and life. The way a fair-minded person warps into a bellowing idiot over his opinion of an event or topic in order to fall along loyal party lines despite their better nature or experiences.
Some lines were so applicable to contemporary American political discourse that I wanted to chuck the little book across the table. You mean we have had these flares of illogical rage and idiocy forever? You mean that our biases are baked into some people on and on? Of course, of course, but God what a disappointment. Having gone through an interdisciplinary history/lit/sociological graduate program, I knew that we live through cycles and repetitive problems of ideologies in America (and elsewhere obviously)...but to see it so starkly laid out from 1945? Ooof.
It's a short read of 3 essays. Notes on Nationalism was the most interesting to me, while the Antisemitism essay comes in second. The sports essay just felt like it could've been a single paragraph summary of "I'm not a sports guy and I think it's divisive." I did chuckle at how Notes on Nationalism ends with the suggestion of self-reflection of personal biases. Literally implicit bias training. OhHhHh NoOoOo ItS wOkE lol.
Some lines were so applicable to contemporary American political discourse that I wanted to chuck the little book across the table. You mean we have had these flares of illogical rage and idiocy forever? You mean that our biases are baked into some people on and on? Of course, of course, but God what a disappointment. Having gone through an interdisciplinary history/lit/sociological graduate program, I knew that we live through cycles and repetitive problems of ideologies in America (and elsewhere obviously)...but to see it so starkly laid out from 1945? Ooof.
It's a short read of 3 essays. Notes on Nationalism was the most interesting to me, while the Antisemitism essay comes in second. The sports essay just felt like it could've been a single paragraph summary of "I'm not a sports guy and I think it's divisive." I did chuckle at how Notes on Nationalism ends with the suggestion of self-reflection of personal biases. Literally implicit bias training. OhHhHh NoOoOo ItS wOkE lol.
Content Warnings
Minor: Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Classism