The Mortality and Morality of Nations

This book answers how mortality and morality figure and intertwine in the life and death of nations - both in theory and in practice.

Uriel Abulof (Author)

9781107480865, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 16 March 2017

382 pages, 16 b/w illus. 5 tables
23 x 15 x 2.6 cm, 0.58 kg

'With The Mortality and Morality of Nations, [Abulof] manages to unsettle received truths on ethnonationalism, never shying away from comparisons that are as insightful as they are provocative. This is a timely book and an illuminating journey into the troubled world of ethnonationalists.' Niklas Plaetzer, The Review of Politics

Standing at the edge of life's abyss, we seek meaningful order. We commonly find this 'symbolic immortality' in religion, civilization, state and nation. What happens, however, when the nation itself appears mortal? The Mortality and Morality of Nations seeks to answer this question, theoretically and empirically. It argues that mortality makes morality, and right makes might; the nation's sense of a looming abyss informs its quest for a higher moral ground, which, if reached, can bolster its vitality. The book investigates nationalism's promise of moral immortality and its limitations via three case studies: French Canadians, Israeli Jews, and Afrikaners. All three have been insecure about the validity of their identity or the viability of their polity, or both. They have sought partial redress in existential self-legitimation: by the nation, of the nation and for the nation's very existence.

Part I. Preface
Part II. Introduction: 1. Theory
2. Case studies
Part III. Theory: 3. Meaning
4. Mortality
5. Morality
6. Liberty
7. Language
Part IV. The French Canadians: 8. The Canadiens: the emergence of an endangered ethnie
9. The French Canadians: the rise and demise of ethno-religionism
10. The Québécois: the rise and demise of ethnonationalism
Part V. Jews and Zionists: 11. Ontological insecurity: Jewish identity in modernity
12. Epistemic insecurity: Jewish and Zionist survival in question
13. Existential threats: Zionism's 'holes in the net'
14. Existential threads: the lifelines of Zionism
Part VI. The Afrikaners: 15. Ontological insecurity: the birth of the Afrikaner ethnie
16. Epistemic insecurity: Afrikaner survival in question
17. Existential threats: Afrikanerdom's 'holes in the net'
18. Existential threads: the lifelines of Afrikanerdom
19. The twilight of apartheid and its aftermath.

Subject Areas: Political science & theory [JPA], Politics & government [JP], Psychology [JM], Sociology [JHB], Ethnic studies [JFSL], Social & political philosophy [HPS], Ethics & moral philosophy [HPQ], Philosophy [HP], History [HB]