This America: The Case for the Nation

"I like short books, I really do. I like this book because it’s an easy read, but it’s a significant read. That’s a great combination. She’s exactly right and it’s what I’m trying to claim myself: Don’t surrender the power of nationalism only to the extremes. Take over the positive, creative, enabling power of nationalism to do something with. It’s interesting to see that in the post-coronavirus era, it is happening more and more. More people speak about bringing jobs back home, buying our products, protecting our people, giving them support, providing health services. The crisis brought back a lot of the welfare language that was common after the war. You need a big crisis and lots of people dying, unfortunately, to make people think about how important it is that they have a state that provides them with protection and services. A lot of people forget that the global market and the flat world and all these wonderful things have been beneficial only to a very small group of people. It is surprising, but even today, the percentage of people living outside the country they were born in is about 3% globally. Most of us live and die in the same state where we were born. Our chances are molded by that state and not by the global situation. To be a globetrotter is fine. I’ve been one for a while, and I’ve enjoyed it, but I know that I’m privileged and it’s not something anyone can do. I’m realizing how irritating it is for people who can’t enjoy these benefits to be left behind. The people who can play the global game enjoy the best of it. They’re doing better, but too much has been given to them. All the rest are really left behind. If you look at income increases in places like the United States, it’s shocking. Since the 1980s, nothing has happened. We’re now at the third generation of people who have seen no rise in income. They are frustrated, and it’s understandable. They are angry because they think somebody has gamed the system against them—and that’s probably true. I’m sure she’s right about American history . I think the common turning point is Francis Fukuyama’s article about the end of history. That’s where it all culminated and we came together saying, ‘We won it, we are here, it’s a global world, it’s going to be more and more liberal and democratic.’ That was the misguided assumption. It certainly had roots earlier, whether it was the 70s, or the 80s, I can’t pinpoint the exact date. In political theory it came much later, people were dealing with minority rights until the 90s. When rewriting nationalism started my first book, Liberal Nationalism , was one of the first to be published, in 1993. I got rejections from very significant publication houses. They said, ‘it’s a great book, but nationalism is of no importance anymore. You Middle Easterners are still stuck in the past.’ That was before 1989 and the fall of the Berlin Wall. Then there was the process of liberation of the republics of the former Soviet Union and suddenly there was a wave of national movements. Nationalism came back. One of the claims I make in the book is that it never disappears. Sometimes it takes a front seat and sometimes it takes a back seat, but it’s there all the time. It’s a mistake not to see it when it’s in the backseat because then you miss the warning signs when it comes back."