.
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by Andrew Sangster.
Hardback (6.5×9.5 inches). 200 pages. 2025.
Subtitle: Identifying Its Forms, Particularly Those Which Lead to War and Mayhem
This high-concept book examines how patriotism can warp into aggressive nationalism and its close cousin irredentist nationalism. The former simply means grabbing land, resources, or power. The latter means grabbing land, resources, or power using an argument that since said land once belonged to a country, it should again.
Either way, coveting thy neighbor’s possessions usually means war — either via pressured diplomacy or outright military attack. Whether it comes from a mass desire or the ego of one leader, ‘this means war’ often means the same thing throughout history. As Mark Twain noted, “History may not repeat itself, but it sure rhymes.” A litany of reasons why nationalism changes to aggression are investigated.
Leaders often forged nations out of tribal areas and/or religious commonality. The victims of forced commonality often had little choice. More than a few assumptions about historical peoples and aggressive nationalism require you to be better informed than I to appreciate all of them.
Each chapter explores common forms of nationalism in historical periods, from cavemen to modern times. If you can recognize the pattern, you might be able to avoid the inevitable wars. That takes the willpower of a public which refuses to allow aggression to occur within their political system. It’s a tall order, especially in autocratic systems.
The author has an unfortunate tendency to stumble over dates. The “defeat of Austria in 1914” (p90) is really 1918. Or, “America entered the war in April 1916” (p103) should be 1917. The Molotov-Ribbentrop pact of 1937 (p108) was in 1939. These are the easy ones to pick out, but given enough errors, I started to wonder about other dates I didn’t know off the top of my head.
One other typo: “right of wrong” (p179) should be “right or wrong.”
The book contains nine black and white photos and nine black and white illustrations.
The author, a reverend as well as historian, covers the moral ground of an amorphous subject. You may or may not agree with his examination, but this is as fine a place to start as the world confronts Putin’s land grab of Ukraine and China’s continuing campaign to grab Taiwan. It’s not a new tune. The song remains the same. Understanding that is the first step in confronting land grabs.
Enjoyed it.
— Reviewed by Russ Lockwood
