Aviel Roshwald. The Endurance of Nationalism: Ancient Roots and Modern Dilemmas. New York: Cambridge University Press. 2006. Pp. xii, 349. Cloth $75.00, paper $29.99

Nationalism is commonly seen by historians and social scientists as a quintessentially modern phenomenon. As such, it is interpreted as a cultural transformation connected to the formation of modern states in Europe that depends on three connected processes of centralization: the emergence of supra-local identities and cultures (the “nation”); the rise of powerful and authoritative institutions within the public domain (the “state”); and the development of particular ways of organizing production and consumption (the “economy”). However, such an assumed connection between a particular European modernity and nationalism is difficult to maintain if one argues, as Benedict Anderson has done, that Creole settlers in the Americas pioneered nationalism. In Anderson's view, it is not state formation in Europe that produces the nation; rather, it is the moving away from the traditional social restrictions of Europe that creates the possibility of...