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Language, Religion and National Identity in Europe and the Middle East

Article in Language Problems & Language Planning · June 2008

DOI: 10.1075/lplp.32.1.10gob

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Federico Gobbo
University of Amsterdam
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 John Myhill. Language, Religion and National Identity in Europe and the
Middle East. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. 2006. vi + 300pp.
Reviewed by Federico Gobbo

The deep relation between national identities, both in modern nation-states (e.g.
Germany) and in post-modern state-nations (e.g. Tanzania), and religion, is sel-
dom analysed even by specialist literature. This book fills this gap and at the same
time it offers more than twenty case studies of national identities, each about ten
pages long.
The book is divided into five chapters, surprisingly not structured chronologi-
cally, but on the basis of comparison, i.e. similarities between the case studies. If
the first chapter deals with premodern times, where the influence of religion was
explicit, the second chapter presents nationalism after the First World War, fol-
lowing the fall of the Habsburg Empire and during the rise of the Soviet Union.
The influence of religion in this context is obviously more subtle, and it is a use-
ful contrast indeed; nonetheless, the reader might expect a discussion of modern
nationalism, as it emerged in France after 1789 as the prototype of all nationalisms
(after all, even the core meaning of the word “nationalism” was established at that
time) before a discussion of the national liberation movements of, for example,
Norwegians or Serbs, who were influenced by it.
This choice sometimes forces the reader to an extensive use of the index; and
consequently the flow of the author’s arguments, especially in complex cases, be-
comes more difficult to follow. For instance, nine pages are dedicated to the the
Italian case (128–130, 134–139) plus a discussion on Fascism (157–159). The non-
specialist reader is informed of all the main data about this particular reality, but
the case is merged with Germany and Pan-Turkism on one side, and with Spain
and Germany on the other, for the sake of comparison.
The complexity of the concept of national identity in so large a spectrum —
both in space and in time — is the main benefit of this book: not only are small or
less known cases covered, such as Latvians, or Albanians, always in comparison
with one another, but also recent phenomena are treated, e.g. the Iran-Iraq war,
ending the Arab neo-imperialism subchapter. The introductions and the conclu-
sions of each chapter, so rich in reflections, are worth a final mention, as they can
give interesting insights, stimulating further discussion.
The last two chapters juxtapose Europe and the Middle East, the fourth chap-
ter dealing with cases such as the UK, the Jews, and Yugoslavia, while the fifth

Language Problems & Language Planning 32:2 (2008), 211–212. doi 10.1075/lplp.32.1.10gob
issn 0272–2690 / e-issn 1569–9889 © John Benjamins Publishing Company
212 Reviews / Críticas / Rezensionen / Recenzoj

deals with Lebanon and the “Palestinian problem.” In conclusion, the book will
interest anyone who wants to read (or re-read) facts and data about European
and Middle East nations in the light of the influence of language and religion, two
main driving forces of the identity of human beings.

Reviewer’s address
Università dell’Insubria / University of Insubria
DICOM — Department of Computer Science and Communication
via Mazzini, 5
IT-21100 Varese, Italy
federico.gobbo@uninsubria.it

About the reviewer

Federico Gobbo is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Communication and Computer
Sciences (DICOM) at the University of Insubria, Varese, Italy, writing his PhD dissertation in
computational linguistics. His research interests lie both in computer science and in linguistics,
in particular language planning, interlinguistics and esperantology.

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