Nationalism

Elie Kedourie obviously has an axe to grind about nationalism - as a Jew he was exiled from Iraq and settled in London. In this book he traces the ideological development of nationalism from Kant, Herder and Fichte, claiming that nationalism was invented when Fichte gave his Addresses to the German Nation in the early nineteenth century. Kedourie unfortunately places far too much emphasis on Kant - who was much more concerned with the individual than the community - and not enough on Hegel. Kedourie also neglects such important writers as Rousseau and Mill and does not attempt to trace just how Fichte et al. influenced specific nationalists. Nevertheless this is a well-written polemic against nationalism from someone who dealt with it first hand.