Nationalism, Ethnicity and the State: Making and Breaking Nations - Softcover

Students of Irish politics have long benefited from John Coakley's erudition. Now students of nationalism and ethnicity can avail of his meticulous scholarship. Coakley has that rare gift: the ability to relay difficult subjects clearly without sacrificing nuance. This book will undoubtedly become the standard bearer in the field
Dr Mary-Alice Connolly Clancy
University of Exeter

This is a remarkably serious and multifaceted synthesis of the literature on nationalism from a comparative historical perspective.
Michael Hechter
Arizona State University

Coakley provides a wide-ranging and knowledgeable account of the elements which go into the making of national identity. Coakley offers a penetrating analysis of what enables or prevents nationalism moving from programmes to political organisations to popular movements to state power and finally the use of that power for nationalist projects.
John Breuilly
London School of Economics

A new kind of perspective has been developed by the author while looking at nationalism in terms of haves and have-nots: politically dominant groups that control the state and counter-groups that wish to reshape the state according to their vision. This book is worth reading for undergraduate and postgraduate students as well as researchers who are beginning the enterprise of understanding the discourse on nationalism. (M. D. Irfan, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi)

Packed with a series of rich, illustrative examples, the book examines this powerful and remarkable political force by exploring:

- Definitions of nationalism

- Language and nationalism

- Religion and Nationalism

- Nationalist history

- The social roots of ideologies and the significance of race, gender and class

- Nationalist movements, from dominant majorities to peripheral minorities socio-economic and sociological perspectives

- State responses to nationalism

Supported by a number of helpful illustrations, tables and diagrams, the text is both engaging and highly informative.

Nationalism, Ethnicity and the State: Making and Breaking Nations will prove an insightful read for both undergraduate and postgraduate students and researchers in the area of Politics and International Relations.