Book Department
KOHN, HANS. The Idea of Nationalism:
A Study in ItS Origins and Background.
Pp. xiii, 735. New York: The Macmil-
lan Co., 1944. $7.50.
The publication of Professor Kohn’s
opus magnum, of which the present volume
isonly the first part, represents an extra-
ordinary event in the history of political
theory studies. It unquestionably estab-
lishes the author as the outstanding au-
thority on the problem of nationalism.
Even granted that this work was greatly
aided in its preparation by the hundreds of
prior studies and detailed monographs in
the general field of nationalism, frankly ap-
preciated by the author in 150 pages of
notes, it constitutes, nevertheless, an origi-
nal contribution in the best meaning of his-
torical originality. It was in awe and ad-
miration of Professor Kohn’s scholarship
that this reader opened and closed the
covers of his work.
It is difficult to avoid superlatives in ap-
praising Hans Kohn’s book, and superla-
tives abound indeed in the many reviews it
has already received from scholars and
publicists alike. The life work of one man,
it encompasses the birth, growth, and frui-
tion of one of the most potent ideas that
have driven mankind from primitive trib-
alism to the modern nation state, or rather,
that reflect the rise and development of
our civilization. It has been suggested by
Max Lerner that this work &dquo;might have
gained body by a greater sharpness of fo-
cusing on the part of the author. The
reader feels a little that he has been chas-
ing shadows.&dquo; But anybody who has ever
attempted to trace the emergence of a po-
litical concept, with all its accompanying
birth pangs, knows that &dquo;chasing shadows&dquo;
is inevitable. And Lerner, master of the
brilliant phrase, accurately assesses the re-
search problem involved in the study of
the history of ideas when he compares the
author to &dquo;a huge excavating machine that
dredges up tons of ideological sand and
gravel because it is searching for a few
pounds of nationalist pay dirt.&dquo;
Ultimate purpose of all historical re-
search, and especially in the history of
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ideas, can only be to explain how things
have come to be as they are. Today na-
tionalism has become the greatest obstacle
to a better world. But without the age of
nationalism, the better world might never
be possible. For, as Professor Kohn points
out, the age of nationalism, coming into its
own in the eighteenth century together with
the emergence of liberalism and industrial-
ism, &dquo;represents the first period of uni-
versal history. What preceded it, was the
long era of separate civilizations.&dquo; By
studying the crystallization of the idea of
nationalism in these separate civilizations-
in ancient Israel and Greece, in Rome, in
the Middle Ages, the Renaissance and the
Reformation, and the basically cosmopoli-
tan-minded Enlightenment-the integrating
dynamism of nationalism, its present world-
wide character, is put in sharp relief.
If nationalism finally became a negative
force in what may be called its disruptive
phase, the era of competitive national capi-
talisms and imperialisms, the very fact that
it so bitterly frustrated man’s quest for se-
curity, liberty, and co-operation may turn
out to be its saving grace. It is for this
reason that Professor Kohn’s background
study of the idea of nationalism is as timely
as it is scholarly. It gives that perspective
without which human efforts would be
meaningless. That nationalism, in spite of
the havoc it has created in our time, con-
tains socially constructive elements as well
as destructive ones, is the real lesson to be
learned from Professor Kohn’s monumental
treatise on the history of the idea of na-
tionalism.
HEINZ H. F. EULAU
New York City
CIANFARRA, CAMILLE M. The Vatican and
the War. Pp. 344. New York: E. P.
Dutton & Co., 1944. $3.00.
The author of this suggestive volume
has had ample opportunity to acquaint
himself with the methods and the objec-
tives of papal diplomacy. From 1935 until
the outbreak of war between Italy and the
United States in December 1941 he served
as New York Times correspondent in