Friday, February 28, 2014

Kohn on Celts

Well, surprise of surprises, Kohn's final chapter isn't about Germany. Yet.

Instead,the chapter called, in part, "Toward the Great Awakening" has been about Wales and Ireland. Kohn's treatment of the growth of nationalism in these countries has been similar to his approach to Germany and Prussia.

Of course, by this point in The Idea of Nationalism the important historical trends and figures of the eighteenth century are well tread. As a result, Kohn is able to skim through the context of important events. This allows him to keep his discussions streamlined and is quite appreciated.

However, Kohn does drop names without giving them context. As far as I can tell, "Grattan" is used several times but Kohn never refers to him as Henry Grattan

That Kohn is able to freely drop names like this suggests that The Idea of Nationalism was written for a specialist audience. Yet, Kohn's smooth but dense prose is much more welcoming than a textbook's.

Given the breadth of his coverage so far, at the very least Kohn covers a wide range of emerging nations.

No comments:

Post a Comment