Summary of The Virtue of Nationalism

By Paul Mani

The Virtue of Nationalism by Yoram Hazony | Conversation Starters

The Virtue of Nationalism is written by one of the leading conservative thinkers in our world today – Yoram Hazony. In his book, he argues that the only realistic guard of liberty in today’s world in the nationalist order. He says that nationalism is the real issue of our age. Hazony cites the politics behind Donald Trump’s “America First” to the rise of the right in European nations to Brexit. In The Virtue of Nationalism, he asserts that our world has been dominated by sovereign nations who become the only option for the citizens who care about their personal and collective freedom. Hazony recounts that even in the sixteenth century, the Dutch, English and American protestants revived national independence and eventually showed how their vision brought freedom from Israel to Ethiopia, Poland to India. Hazony implores his readers that if we want to limit conflicts and hate and if we want innovation to flourish, this is the very tradition that we must restore. 

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• Language: English
• Publisher: BH
• Release date: May 22, 2019

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Author

Introducing The Virtue of Nationalism

I

N HIS BOOK THE VIRTUE OF NATIONALISM, YORAM HAZONY DEMONSTRATES imperialism and nationalism through a basic historical framework. His readers will understand how both nationalism and imperialism have developed among the nations in the West. He introduces the distinction between the kind of political order based on the national state and the one that is based on the imperial state. According to Hazony, the political order based on the national state seeks to rule over one nation only. On the other hand, the political order based on the imperial state seeks to bring prosperity and peace over one region by uniting mankind under one political regime. This stark distinction between the two political orders is the center of the political thought of the Old Testament in the Hebrew Bible. Hazony cites that in the wake of the Reformation, this political order inspired the renunciation of the Holy Roman Empire's authority through national states that include France, the Netherland, and England. This began the period of four long centuries when the people of American and Western Europe lived under the new Protestant construction of the political world. This was the time when self-determination and national independence have come to be regarded as the nation's foundational principles. These eventually became the most precious possessions of citizens and the foundational basis for all freedoms. Hazony says that what would benefit all mankind is that the order of these independent nations would permit the varied forms of religion, culture, and self-government in a "world of