cover image Confronting the Nation: Jewish and Western Nationalism

Confronting the Nation: Jewish and Western Nationalism

George L. Mosse. Brandeis University Press, $40 (232pp) ISBN 978-0-87451-635-7

The uneasy relationship between the Jews and nationalism is explored in these 12 penetrating scholarly essays. From the French Revolution onward, asserts eminent historian Mosse ( Fallen Soldiers ), nationalism became a virtual ``civic religion,'' using symbols, myths and rituals to give the masses a sense of political participation while disciplining them. But Jews of Western Europe and the U.S., even those who embraced nationalist sentiments, often found themselves stereotyped as outsiders bent on destroying all existing community. Demonstrating an easy mastery of cultural and political history, Mosse investigates such topics as the mass book burnings by pro-Nazi German professors and students; the Italian Futurist avant-garde's impact on political culture through exaltation of war, speed and technology; Americans' search for unifying national symbols, and stereotyping of blacks and Jews, during the Depression; and Jews' abiding commitment to liberalism, as exemplified by Zionists Gershom Scholem and Max Nordau, who, Mosse argues, combined a commitment to Jewish nationalism with tolerant, progressive, liberal values. (Dec.)