NATIONALISM: A Religion

by Carlton J.H. Hayes ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 31, 1960

Carlton Hayes has been a student of nationalism for many years, and has to his credit several other books on the subject, some of which are widely paraphrased here. This book must be read very carefully indeed if one is to jump the gap between one's own conventional definitions of nationalism, nation, and nationality and Hayes' terminology, albeit he states clearly and often just how he does define them. Cultural nationalism and political nationalism he regards as historically disparate. He claims the U.N. put ""the whole world...on a (political) nationality basis"" that does not quite match the map of cultural nationality. This, he says, is at the root of much of today's struggle among nations: ""The tendency has been for cultural nationalism to lead to political nationalism, and for each nationality (community with common language and traditions) to strive to establish an independent national state (standard political unit) of its own"". Nationalism is such, concludes Hayes, that it satisfies man's religious compulsion, especially among Communists, who have discarded supernatural religion but cling tenaciously to nationalism which, when woven together with patriotism is, he says, more universally motivating than Communism itself.

Pub Date: Oct. 31, 1960

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Macmillan

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1960

Categories: NONFICTION