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Schertzer and Woods have written a timely, rigorous, and thoughtful examination of the rise of ethnic nationalism in the West. The book adeptly anchors the political mobilization of white majorities in the defensive postures that define them while simultaneously explaining the broader historical and cultural contexts that are so often missing from contemporary analyses. This critical analysis fell short, however, in its relative lack of engagement on issues related to gender and the gendered mobilization of nationalist and extremist backlash, including violence. But aside from brief mentions of the case of the 2016 U.S. election and the femonationalism of Marine Le Pen and others like her, the arguments put forth in the book suffer from an inattention to gendered dimensions in ways that hollow out the explanatory power of their claims by leaving out some of the most persuasive evidence about the role that gender, hostile sexism, and misogyny play in mobilizing support for violent extremism, political violence, nationalist movements, and other forms of xenophobic and exclusionary ideas. In this book debate essay, I briefly lay out what I think was missed and why it matters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Friedrich Schleiermacher emerged as a prominent advocate for German nationalism in the Wars of Liberation from Napoleonic domination in the early nineteenth century. Alongside his work as a pastor and theologian in Berlin, and also as the co-founder of the University of Berlin, Schleiermacher developed German nationalism from a distinctly Protestant perspective, one that sought the preservation of Protestantism in the German lands under Napoleonic domination. While it would be an overstatement to suggest that Schleiermacher's nationalism was anti-Catholic, he certainly sought to preserve and maintain Protestantism in the German lands. His vision of the German nation-state emphasized Germany's role as a divine instrument of God's will in the world. He assumed the cultural unity of the peoples in German lands, that is, an area of land in which the peoples are bound together by the common use of the German language. In his distinct role as a pastor, theologian, and academic, he was devoted to the cultivation of German national consciousness and the establishment of a German nation-state. Schleiermacher's work would help to provide a cultural foundation for the emergence of the German nation-state more than half a century before the establishment of the German empire. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reconsiders liberal nationalism in light of the current autocratic nationalist threat. I argue that liberal nationalism cannot redress the social ailments which acclimatize people to the sorts of no-holds-barred political contestation favoured by autocratic nationalists – excessive polarization. I then argue that liberal nationalists do not recognize the degree to which 'in-group' racial solidarity motivates members of the racial/ethnic majority to preserve their status, and that the liberal nationalist approach to defending minorities' rights therefore risks either emboldening the majority to embrace autocracy or consolidating social hierarchies between the majority and minorities. On these bases, I show that democrats must seek to not only detach race/ethnicity from nationality but also redress those problematic racial/ethnic hierarchies. This suggests the need to develop liberal nationalism into multiculturalist nationalism. Multiculturalist nationalism, however, promises a sort of bounded solidarity that does not include all citizens: it makes use of targeted political antagonism against anti-democrats like White supremacists and Identitarians to help diffuse any social antagonism that might exist among minorities, inclusive members of the majority, and cultural conservatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, Eileen Gu attracted considerable attention and sparked numerous discussions on Chinese social media. Using the method of textual analysis, this paper examines the various responses of Chinese women, particularly Chinese feminists, to Eileen's achievements on Chinese social media, framing these responses within recent studies of neoliberalism's undoing of feminism as well as long-standing debates about the relationship between feminism and nationalism. This paper argues that discussions about Eileen on Chinese social media not only illustrate how neoliberalism is absorbed, reworked, and resisted in its transnational circulation but also demonstrate how nationalist narratives can be strategically used by Chinese feminists to validate their feminist positions. It further enriches existing scholarship on neoliberalism with a transnational perspective, reaffirms the importance of contextualizing the relationship between Third World feminism and nationalism, and highlights the significance of uncovering indigenous feminist resources in Third World countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gobustan, a prehistoric site 60 km south of Baku, has an impressive collection of rock carvings from different prehistoric eras. Near the site, a national museum presents the prehistoric findings in a narrative that connects them with modern-day Azerbaijan, calling the hunter–gatherer tribes that lived in Gobustan 'our ancient Azerbaijani ancestors'. While many nation-building projects dig deep into the past, reconstruct it, claim ancient civilizations as their own and sometimes even invent historical narratives that never happened, the Gobustan Museum and the narrative it implies (that prehistoric people living in 15,000 BCE were Azerbaijanis) seems like 'overkill', an exaggerated effort to connect the past and the present. The data from the museum points to a larger story: the construction of national identity and collective memory in post-Soviet Azerbaijan. This paper presents some of the author's anthropological field research findings in the museum and explains why the narrative of 'ancientness' is so essential in post-Soviet Azerbaijan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores how a Powellite form of nostalgia – named for the anti-immigration politics of former British MP Enoch Powell – connects seemingly contradictory nationalist narratives known as Global Britain and Little England. While the former is typically aligned with an expansive and buccaneering national biography, the latter is held to operate via a more defensive and exclusionary imaginary. This article challenges such a binary distinction by demonstrating how the two discursive strands are intimately connected by nostalgic views about white English racial dominance, cultivated during Britain's pursuit of empire. Drawing on a qualitative analysis of verbal and visual sources from the Brexit referendum, plus 13 interviews with Leave campaigners, the article shows how Powellite nostalgia reproduces gendered and racialised colonial images of the nation amid immigration 'crisis'. Despite the detoxifying effects of much post-referendum Brexit analysis, the article also demonstrates how Powellite nostalgia is shared across the Eurosceptic spectrum and within broader English culture, persisting into the post-Brexit era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars generally argue that nationalism and secessionism pose important dilemmas for national, regional and global order. Yet, there is inadequate discussion on the varied contexts of nationalist secessionist movements and how they influence or are influenced by domestic and global forces. Addressing this concern, this article undertakes a three‐case comparison of the Western Togoland separatist movement in Ghana, Southwest and Northwest (Anglophone) Cameroon's secessionist movement and the movement for independent Catalonia in Spain. These dissimilar cases—both from Global South and North—enable a broader examination of how themes such as political history, state capacity and regional/continental organisations affect nationalist‐induced secessionist movements and the measures to address them. Using a thematic comparative approach, this article examines the relevant literature on secessionism, nationalism, regionalism and cognate fields to demonstrate that the dynamics and consequence of secessionist movements depend largely on four interwoven factors: (a) the internal organisation and support for the nationalists' course, (b) state capacity to handle uprisings, (c) political conditions and conflict context of neighbouring countries and (d) interest and (re)actions of regional bodies and international allies. The comparative approach thus offers nuance, illustrating the critical angles of variations and intersections in secessionist movements and the effect on global order. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature on sub-state diplomacy has revealed that identity entrepreneurs representing minority nations like Quebec engage in foreign affairs, normally defined as identity paradiplomacy. This article argues that the concepts of the identity entrepreneur and of identity paradiplomacy should be broadened to refer to any sub-state decision-maker, not only those representing minority nations, that disseminates identity or nationalist ideas in engagements with foreign actors. The reconceptualization advances scholarship by incorporating a more diverse array of types of identity paradiplomacy and refines our understanding of both the causes and the consequences of nationalist-driven paradiplomacy. As an empirical illustration of this proposition, the article offers a case study of the diplomatic affairs of Romania's sub-state governments toward the Republic of Moldova, which were dominated by nationalist narratives shared by central authorities and included no references to regional identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Central Europe is often considered to be a source of nationalist pathologies and plagues that could infect "proper" (Western) Europe. This image is at best outdated, as Western Europe and the United States have (and always have had) their own nationalist and conservative authoritarian resources. Moreover, Central Europe has also been a space of original political thought, albeit often obscure or forgotten, which can contribute to our understanding of the contemporary world beyond the borders of the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the nationalist rhetoric of Biden and Trump in the 2020 presidential election, focusing on how the candidates represented, and contested, the meaning of American national identity. To do so, we construct a novel analytical framework to undertake a contextual content analysis of Biden and Trump's campaign tweets (n = 4,321). We demonstrate that the meaning of national identity was a key source of contestation in the election, and that the parameters of this contestation closely tracked a longstanding cleavage in American political culture between civic and ethnic nationalist traditions. Biden largely drew upon the civic nationalist tradition to defend a conception of American national identity that is grounded in liberal myths and symbols. By contrast, Trump largely drew upon the ethnic nationalist tradition to defend a conception of American national identity that is grounded in white American myths and symbols. Critically, both candidates used these opposing nationalist traditions to frame each other as a grave threat to the nation's "true" identity and, ultimately, as un-American. This "nationalist polarization" of presidential politics is a troubling development for the future of American democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article studies the violent politics of stigmatisation and erasure of nationalist urban infrastructure. In general, urban infrastructure is a mechanism of state power. But, through the case of the imposing presence of Turkish nationalist infrastructure in the Kurdish city Diyarbakir, it demonstrates that when tied to an antagonistic nationalist political project, this infrastructure is often purposefully built to violently cleanse urban spaces of the national "other". Be it a statue, a mural or a picture of a nationalist leader – this infrastructure is incapable of inflicting physical pain. Nonetheless, its violence is symbolic and meant to have a real effect on Diyarbakir's Kurds' ability and willingness to identify as Kurds. That said, violence does not entirely inform the spatial experience of those targeted by this nationalist infrastructure. The article demonstrates that Kurdish residents also found ways of remaining unaffected, even treating the infrastructure laden with Turkish nationalist iconography as a reminder of their own Kurdish identity. This article thus expands our understanding of what nationalist infrastructure does. It may be designed to be violent. However, it also reveals itself to be a site of contestation – equally inspiring the persistence of the counter-narrative of the national "other". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent literature on the centre–periphery debate in European politics has produced a wide range of composite paradigms of regionalism, nationalism, and populism and nativism. A number of these definitions, however, tend to overemphasise the importance of populism by either framing it as a core ideology or by conflating it with the nationalism or regionalism of a specific party. This article makes three innovative contributions to populist studies by sustaining an ideational approach to populism and its combination with regionalist and nationalist ideologies. First, the article addresses the varied and at times conflicting composite paradigms of regionalism, nationalism, and populism by proposing a minimalist 'populist regionalist' and 'populist nationalist' conceptual framework; this places the emphasis on the type of nationalism and regionalism (left- or right-wing, civic or ethnic) to which populism and (potentially) nativism are attached. Second, by emphasising a clear distinction between populism and nativism, the article adds to a growing field of literature which aims to address the problem of 'populist hype'. Finally, the contribution of a brief comparative case study illustrates how populism represents a key link between nationalists and regionalists ranging from the far-left to the far-right which are otherwise separated by nativism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines José Servando Teresa de Mier's "Carta de despedida a los mexicanos." In the letter written in 1821, Mier argues that the name Mexico must be spelled with an x to preserve the name's originary connotations. Analyzing the poetic strategies and messianic discourses implicit in how Mier composes the idea signified by the name Mexico, I argue that Mier supplies a plausible argument for its time about the sources of Mexican identity and nationhood. Given the context of uncertainty around the future of Novohispanic independence in early 1821, the "Carta" is a timely intervention about the nation at a critical juncture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When addressing nature and the natural world, various discourses arise, which are often fraught with political and ideological motivations. While some paint nature as a thing to overcome and correct, others emphasize the need for humanity to connect more closely with it. The latter underlies the testimony of the semifictional narrator of Elena Poniatowska's Hasta no verte Jesús mío (1969), Jesusa Palancares. Her epic journey through the tumultuous events of 20th-century Mexico contains significant comments on nature and her (dis)connectedness from it, depending on the political scene of the time and her geographic location. This discourse demonstrates what Kate Soper calls a "nature-endorsing" perspective. Jesusa's story represents a lifelong struggle to negate signifying notions of gender, as well as the hegemonic nationalist impulse to embrace Mexicanness, thereby critiquing the shortcomings of Mexican society's norms for women and, more specifically, those of the revolutionary government in a disillusioned post-Tlatelolco nation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the political life and imprisonment of the author's great-aunt, Monserrate del Valle del Toro, a Puerto Rican nationalist and onetime political prisoner. Monserrate was arrested in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, on October 30, 1950, for participating in an attempt to overthrow the US government. In telling Monserrate's story, the article attempts to upend certain established narratives of the history of Puerto Rican nationalism, of who fought in the struggle for independence and how they fought. That fight took place in the political and legal arena and in the streets of towns all over the archipelago, but it also took place within the walls of the Arecibo District Jail, where a group of nationalist women, including Monserrate, sheltered, cared for, and fed each other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the processes of racialization in Portuguese right-wing political movements through two prominent nationalist fanpages. It employs a mixed-methods approach that includes both quantitative and qualitative official data. The sample covers 72 months, from January 2017 to December 2020, encompassing a total of 3670 posts on Facebook. The main findings reveal that the fanpages utilize different discursive strategies, sometimes focusing on publishing static images and other times on sharing news links. From these publications, the fanpages garnered more than 1.4 million interactions, demonstrating consistent growth in their follower bases over the years. Emotional responses played a significant role in the interactions, particularly with Love, Sad, and Angry reactions standing out. The results also reveal that Portuguese nationalism maintains a dual ideology concerning race: ethno-exclusivism and ethno-pluralism. This observation affirms the dual nature of nationalist fanpages, where narrative elements converge and diverge based on the intended goal. Thus, individuals from Africa and Afro-descendants can be portrayed as both national heroes and social scum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article contextualises the participation of Estonian elites in the transnational exchanges of racial and eugenic ideas. The Estonian Nationalist Club (ERK) became a crucial platform where radical nationalist thinkers appropriated ideologies of race and eugenics for the Estonian context. The ERK's membership, elitist outlook, nationalist anxieties, and geopolitical orientation fostered enthusiastic engagement with racial and eugenic thinking. Inspired by the Swedish and German examples, ERK-affiliated commentators theorised Estonians' Nordic racial belonging and expressed ambivalence over racial purity. They skilfully navigated between criticism of German extremism and the drive to advance a racial and eugenic agenda compatible with their radical nationalist beliefs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]