Polyethnicity and National Unity in World History : The Donald G. Creighton Lectures 1985 / William H. McNeill.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

McNeill, William H., author.

Series:

Heritage

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Cultural pluralism--History.

Cultural pluralism.

Cultural pluralism--Canada--History.

Nationalism--History.

Nationalism.

Nationalism--Canada--History.

Canada.

Genre:

History.

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (vii, 85 pages)

Place of Publication:

Toronto : University of Toronto Press, [2019]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

Schools have taught us to expect that people should live in separate national states. But the historical records shows that ethnic homogeneity was a barbarian trait; civilized societies mingled peoples of diverse backgrounds into ethnically plural and hierarchically ordered polities. The exception was northwestern Europe. There, peculiar circumstances permitted the preservation of a fair simulacrum of national unity while a complex civilization developed. The ideal of national unity was enthusiastically propagated by historians and teachers even in parts of Europe where mingled nationalities prevailed. Overseas, European empires and zones for settlement were always ethnically plural; but in northwestern Europe the tide has turned only since about 1920, and now diverse groups abound in Paris and London as well as in New York and Sydney. Age-old factors promoting the mingling of diverse populations have asserted this power, and continue to do so even when governments in the ex-colonial lands of Africa and Asia are trying hard to create new nations within what are sometimes quite arbitrary boundaries. In demonstrating how unusual and transitory the concept of national ethnic homogeneity has been in world history, William McNeill offers an understanding that may help human minds to adjust to the social reality around them.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Foreword

Contents

LECTURE ONE. Empire and Nation to 1750

LECTURE TWO. The 'Iriumph of Nationalism, 1750-1920

LECTURE THREE. Reassertion of the Polyethnic Norm since 1920

Notes:

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 25. Sep 2019)

ISBN:

1-4875-8262-5

OCLC:

1121056826