Nationalism and Culture

Translated from the German by Ray E. Chase

Nationalism and Culture is a detailed and scholarly study, originally published in 1937, of the development of nationalism and the changes in human cultures from the dawn of history to the present day and an analysis of the relations of these to one another.

Rocker traces the evolution of religious and political systems and their relation to the authoritarian State on the one hand and to the people on the other
he analyzes the Nation as alleged community of race, of culture, of language, of interest. The book contains a series of cross-sections of European society at successive historical periods and relates them to one another
offering copious illustrations of the literature of every period and country.

It is at every point illuminated by the interpretative comment of the author, scholarly, brilliant, poetic, human - the ripened fruit of thirty years of intensive and devoted study by a man in every way fitted for the task.

"An important contribution to political philosophy, both on account of its penetrating and widely informative analysis of many famous writers, and on account of the brilliant criticism of state-worship. I hope it will be widely read in all those countries where disinterested thinking is not yet illegal." - Bertrand Russell

"An important contribution to our thought about human society: it is the work not merely of a keen, well-poised mind, but of a deeply humane personality. ... Nationalism and Culture, in short, is a book worthy to be placed on the same shelf that holds Candide, The Rights of Man and Mutual Aid." - Lewis Mumford

"I find the book extraordinarily original and illuminating. Many facts and relationships are presented in it in a novel and convincing fashion."- Albert Einstein

"It is impossible to give an adequate review of a book so dense with facts. I can only state that where I have special knowledge, as in the history of art, I have invariably found these facts correct. I find Rocker tolerant, modest, and aware of the essential values in culture. In one word, I find him infinitely sympathetic." - Herbert Read