For Love of Country
An Essay On Patriotism and Nationalism
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Oxford University Press
Published:14th Sep '95
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
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- Paperback£55.00(9780198293583)
Nationalism and patriotism are two of the most powerful forces shaping world history. Though seen by many as two sides of the same coin, they have come to have widely different connotations. Nationalism is increasingly seen as destructive, and at the root of the world's bloodiest conflicts; patriotism seems something more benign, a political virtue. How are we to mark the distinction between these two phenomena? How can we rescue patriotism from the tainted grasp of nationalism? Reconstructing the historical the meaning of the terms, Maurizio Viroli shows how the two concepts have been used within specific cultural and ideological contexts. He reviews the political though of Italy, England, and Germany and shows how patriotism and nationalism have fundamentally different roots. Professor Viroli concludes that it is morally unacceptable, and indeed unnecessary, to be a nationalist to defend the values that nationalists hold dear. Patriotism, however, is a valuable source of civic responsibility.
We are all in debt to Viroli for his sympathetic and acute dissection of the patriot tradition, and his thought-provoking reflections on our political shortcomings. * Times Higher Education Supplement *
This is an excellent book and it is very timely. Maurizio Viroli's proposal to reclaim the language of republican patriotism is not only an important contribution to the discussion around the issue of nationalism. It is also a crucial intervention in the current debate about the need for 'community' and 'civic virtue'. * Chantal Mouffe, University of Westminster, Political Studies, Vol. 45, No.1, March '97 *
a substantial and stimulating contribution to the burgeoning literature on the republican tradition in political thought * Alan Patten, University of Exeter, History of Political Thought, Volume XVIII, Issue 1, Spring 1997 *
This book is a learned political sermon ... This study is conducted in an erudite manner ... The great richness of material convincingly establishes that there was a passionate rhetoric of patriotism of the kind Viroli commends. * John Breuilly, University of Birmingham, Nations and Natioalism, Vol. 3, Part 1 - 1997 *
The students of patriotic emotions and arguments will find in Viroli's book many quotations and discussions of well known and lesser known thinkers on the topic ... * Jean Tournon, Nationalism and Ethic Politics vol.3 no.1,1997 *
Viroli's account of the relationship of such key figures as Rousseau, Herder, and Mazzini to nationalist and liberal thought is importan. Viroli's immersion of Rousseau in the tradition of civic republicanism adds powerfully to a growing chorus in Rousseau's defence against charges of totalitarianism. - Dr J Stapleton. British Journal of Politics and International Relations. April 1999.
ISBN: 9780198279525
Dimensions: 225mm x 144mm x 19mm
Weight: 391g
206 pages