by Benjamin Anderson, 1991 revised and extended edition, Verso, an imprint of Left Wing Books 
My son went to George Washington University in Washington, D.C., to get his Master’s degree in Eastern European History. After graduating he had a collection of books that he was assigned while there. Before throwing them away, he asked if I wanted any of them. I picked through them and selected several that I thought looked interesting and I would want to read someday. This book dealt with “Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism.” Having received my degree in political science, this topic caught my eye, and I put it in a pile to read at a later date.
Well, that date came this summer when I pulled it out as a summer reading book. To state that I was disappointed is an understatement. As I read it I began to think it was one of the worst books I had ever read. But I soldiered on to finish the book, only to arrive at the conclusion that it was not ONE of the worst books I had ever read, but actually THE WORST book I have ever read.
Anderson meanders throughout the book from one thought to the next, never really tying anything together. I was hoping to discern some undrelying premise, but it never emerged. He is obviously a brilliant individual and has spent his career studying the development of various countries, particularly in Southeast Asia. He cannot, however, communicate his thoughts in a straighforward manner, and, instead, constantly chooses vocabulary that is intended, no doubt, to show off his erudition. This makes his message totally inscrutable to the reader. In addition, he has a penchant for quoting long passages from other authors in a foreign language, somehow thinking that all of his readers must understand French.
I would admit that there were some topics in the book that piqued my interest: the impacts of language, religion, geography, etc. Unfortunately, Anderson never seemed to reach a conclusion. I also thought that the book would have a chapter at the end, summarizing his findings and tying everything together. No, it didn’t. He, instead, ended the book with a chapter on “Memory and Forgetting” which introduced another set of somewhat diffuse thoughts that didn’t integrate very well with any of the prior chapters.
I also wonder if the formation of the EU in 1993 and its subsequent history wourld have given the author some addtional thoughts regarding nationalsim, ISIS was also attempting to form a new caliphate based on religtion that crossed national borders. Would some more recent history have provided some additional insights into the development of nations and the concepts of nationalism? I don’t know.
Anderson is, or was, a professor of International Relations at Cornell University. Based on what is presented in this book, I would feel very sorry for any student who had him for a class. With the rise of populism in the United States and attacks on the Ivy School “elites”, I suspect that this book, written by an Ivy League shcool professor, would be great fodder to illustrate the charges that these instituions of higher learning are pumping out irrelevant and poorly developed material. Sad!
I gave this book a one-star rating but I didn’t set up anything lower. Maybe it deserves one star for its subject matter, but, beyond that, it doesn’t deserve anything more positive in my opnion.
