Andrew Sangster is an extraordinary individual. With numerous degrees and a wealth of lifetime experiences, he has written an amazing cannon of books, mainly focussed on the 20th century; people and wars. Exploring Nationalism is a step into a totally different world and one, I must confess, that I’ve given little thought to. He starts by exploring the nature of nationalism. Is it different to patriotism? This is a seemingly simple question, but it soon becomes clear that each have different bases and values. I’ve read this book over a couple of weeks, taking time to digest and consider the numerous challenging and thought provoking issues he raises. He sets out a complex world view, going back centuries to trace and I found the approach ingenious and compelling. This is an academic text in many ways; but he’s made the subject accessible to the lay reader. But more than that, it’s prescient in that it raises red flags about history repeating itself, not learning from mistakes of the last and gives an insight into some of the reasons for a seemingly unexpected resurgence of the far right. If you have even a passing interest in social history, this is an incredible look at past and present written by someone with intellect and knowledge. Powerful and occasionally frightening.
My thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an early review copy. .

I got this as an arc on Netgalley and it will come out in June. I think it's good to read up on nationalism, seeing how right wing nationalism is so on the rise atm, and I feel I have learned a lot of things from this book. That being said, it also has a few definite "Ehhhhh, no" jumps and conclusions so go in to this book not expecting to fully agree with everything.

I found this book tedious and difficult to read, but full of good information. The problem was that the information was not presented in a way that was engaging for me. I was disappointed with the writing and found myself frustrated with the author's style. Despite this personal preference, I think the book included a lot of very useful and important information, which is why I'm not giving it a low rating.

As an international political science major, EXPLORING NATIONALISM tackles a much-talked about subject in present times. Using history as a lens, the author gives a good introduction to the concept of nationalism and how it has evolved through time. As an academic, this would have been valuable to my own research. For the layman, this is still an approachable book as it lays down the many ways we understand elements of nationalism (language, ethnicity, religion) and how they interplay not just in the building of a nation, but also in going to war both internally and externally.