About the author
Israeli-American political theorist and Bible scholar (b. 1964), president of the Herzl Institute in Jerusalem and a central organiser of the 'national conservatism' conferences. Trained at Princeton and Rutgers, Hazony has become one of the most cited contemporary defenders of nationalism and a sharp critic of liberal universalism, making this book a touchstone of recent right-of-centre political thought.
Synopsis
Hazony argues that the nation-state, far from being a cause of twentieth-century catastrophe, is the political order most conducive to liberty and self-determination, and that the real danger is imperial universalism — the impulse, religious or secular, to unite humanity under one regime of truth. He traces an 'Anglo-American' and biblical tradition of bounded national independence and defends national loyalty against both liberal globalism and tribalism.
Core passage idea
Paraphrase · Modern copyrighted workHazony argues that the choice in political order is fundamentally between an order of independent national states and an order of empire seeking to impose a single rule on all.
By casting the alternatives as 'nationalism versus empire' rather than 'nationalism versus liberal openness,' Hazony recasts the nation-state as the underdog defender of freedom and pluralism. Whether one accepts that framing is the crux of the contemporary argument over nationalism.
To avoid a bubble
Pair with anti-colonial critics (Césaire, Fanon) and liberal cosmopolitans (Kant's Perpetual Peace) for the case that nationalism has at least as often been the engine of empire and exclusion as the guard against them.
Reading note
Read it as the strongest recent statement of its position, and test the central dichotomy: critics argue Hazony defines 'empire' broadly enough to capture any international cooperation while defining 'nation' narrowly enough to avoid its exclusionary history. Pair deliberately with an anti-colonial voice.
Best paired with
Aimé Césaire, Discourse on Colonialism; Immanuel Kant, Perpetual Peace.