*** TIMOTHY SNYDER: La reconstruction des nations. Pologne, Ukraine, Lituanie, Bélarus, 1569-1999. Editions Gallimard (5 rue Gaston-Gallimard, F-75328 Paris cedex 07. Tél.: (33-1) 49544200 – fax: 45449403 – Courriel: catalogue@gallimard.fr – Internet: http://www.gallimard.fr ). Collection « Bibliothèque des histoires ». 2017, 509 p., 35 €. ISBN 978-2-07-014852-3.
When do nations arise? What leads to ethnic cleansing? How can states make peace? US historian Timothy Snyder begins this book with these three questions, a book originally published in English (in 2003) that sees the author masterfully retrace over a period of more than four centuries the construction and reconstruction of the idea of nation in North-East Europe. This book is virtually compulsory reading for anyone wanting to understand where Poland is coming from, or what explains |Ukraine’s positioning - or that of Belarus.
A professor at Yale University, the author retraces ‘the history of moving to the modern notion of nation’ taking as starting point the foundation in 1569 of the biggest State at the start of modern Europe, namely the Polish-Lithuanian Republic, also known as the ‘Two Nations Republic,’ Lublin Union and Poland-Lithuania. Covering the current Poland, Belarus, Ukraine and the Baltic area, he explains that this body corresponded to an open vision of the nation based on citizenship and tolerance of language and religion. This Res publica also accepted the political allegiances in force on these territories. In the eighteenth century, rival empires dismembered this Republic, patriots then came on the scene to ‘redistribute the nation peoples and nationality in the languages they speak.’ The US historian sees in the Polish revolution of 1863 the emergence of modern nationalism, based on the ethnic, linguistic and religious nation. It was from this crucible that emerged at the time of the two world wars the independent States and soviet republics, the deportations, genocides and ethnic cleansing that the Second World War brought about, finishing the job of imposing modern nationalism by destroying historical regions and emptying multicultural cities.
Was ethnic cleansing – particularly that suffered by Poles and Ukrainians ‘during the four years of Nazi and Soviet occupation before they inflicted it on each other’ generated by nationalism or, on the contrary, did it nationalise the people in question? Could the aspiration ‘to ideas of the modern nation’ that it bore witness to have found a peaceful solution? These are some of the key questions raised by the period from 1940 to 1990, the author pointing out that the revolutions of 1989 found themselves confronted in the four countries with all imaginable sources of national conflict, namely ‘disintegration of empire, borders without historical legitimacy, protesting minorities, vengeful demands, frightened elites, new democratic policies, memories of ethnic cleansing, national myths of endless conflict etc.’ Timothy Snyder shows that on this permanently potentially explosive soil, ‘an eastern Polish policy aware of the idea of modern nations shaped a stable geopolitical order.’ He adds that where peace and prosperity have prevailed after the collapse of the Soviet Union, ‘the historic story of a ‘return to Europe’ was put centre-stage.’ In this way, the Poles and other Eastern Europeans have shown that what they understood by a ‘return to Europe’ after 1989 was not a return to the past, ‘but moving forward towards the achievements of post-war Western Europe.’ In a way, by joining the European Union, Poland and Lithuania have re-pooled their sovereignty, as they’d done with Lublin Union in 1569. They did it back then along with others which these days remain on the other side of the border. The history revisited – or discovered – here is fascinating. One wonders what the historian thinks of recent developments in Poland and some of its neighbours?
Pierre Bouvier
*** Politique. Revue belge d’analyse et de débat. ASBL Politique (9 rue du Faucon, B-1000 Brussels. Tel: (32-2) 5386996 – Email: info@politique.eu.org – Internet: http://www.revuepolitique.org ). March 2018, No. 103, 132 pp, €22. Subscripton: €45 (€40 for pdf, €50 for both versions).
This issue of a high-quality progressive review of French-speaking Belgium contains a special report looking very usefully at the current torments and perspectives for Social Democracy, with the title making it clear: ‘The final fall?’ It opens with a balance sheet at continent-level drawn up in an interview with researcher Fabien Escalona (University of Grenoble), who explains why ‘the golden age of social democracy is behind it,’ which can be put down to the consequences of the change in neoliberal discourse to which it sacrificed too much: ‘(...) social democracy is collateral damage of the end of the ‘pacified progress’ model of Western societies after the Second World War. This model was artificially prolonged after the 1970s by financial fireworks, but the fizzling out of these fireworks was the big issue of the years 2010-2019.’ He discerns this change in neoliberal discourse in the economic openness now shown by Germany, where ‘the CDU (conservatives) and FDP (liberals) defend a new form of economic nationalism associating ordo-liberal recipes with a discourse of the nation turning in on itself and rejection of international cooperating and support mechanisms.’ The fact that social democracy is living through the end of an epoch and is seeing its future become unpredictable, becomes obvious when one reads a detailed analysis of the Italian left and an article in which French political scientist and sociologist Laurent Chambon judges that ‘Dutch workers have dug their own grave by zealously following the recipes of Tony Blair.’ The eight other contributions look at the left in Belgium and are not really likely to encourage it to take a rosy-tinted view... There is also in this issue the start of a debate about basic income or universal credit that will continue over the next few quarters.
(MT)
*** ILIAS THERMOS: L'Europe entre Moyen Age et rupture. Editions Sideris (116 rue Solonos, GR-10681 Athens. Tel: (30-210) 3833434 – Fax: 3832294 – Email: contact@isideris.gr). 2017, 228 pp, €18. ISBN 978-960-08-0740-0.
Prof. Ilias Thermos, chair of the Department of Economic Studies and European and International Politics at Macedonia University, notes at the start of his book: ‘The crisis in Europe has been in place for as long as European Union leaders have ignored, and persist in ignoring, crucial dilemmas in Europe’s history and culture. The strategy selected for building the Union divides European historical reality by separating the continent into Western and Eastern Europe, without Russia and with the ambition of undermine Russia’s national integration and timeless security.’ As far as the author is concerned, the European project was constructed like an economic building, with its architects unable to balance the industrial north with the deficits of the south, dividing the Union, while political integration was delayed. This gave rise to the fact that at present, there no overarching balanced political system ensuring power sharing, stability and social justice, with citizens as the main sovereigns. In a way, he explains, Aristotle and the Greco-Roman culture are not being used to build a pan-European political system focused on democracy and citizens’ rights. On the contrary, the current undermining of the middle classes due to competition from the financial markets has ruined the balance of the Aristotelian social system, while the ‘hegemonic hallucinations’ of Germany undermine not only the future of European integration but also its own integration. Brexit, the restoration of the eastern question with Turkey, the unbalanced Franco-German axis and the ambiguity of the United States in the face of European reality are all factors that bring insecurity and generate pessimism. The rapid economic rise of China and India also cast fear in Europe, which fears no longer being just a region of investment...
(AKa)
*** IRINI AGAPIDAKI: 100+1 histoires de la crise. Editions Epikentro (9 rue Kamvounion, GR-54621 Thessalonica. Tel: (30-231) 0256146 – Fax: 2310256148 – Internet: http://www.epikentro.gr ). 2017, 272 pp, €9. ISBN: 978-960-458788-9.
Economics, politics, society, culture and the environment are all the focus of concern, but the most important thing is people, their needs, the needs of their bodies, of course but also, and more importantly, those of their soul. This is the key characteristic of the author’s focus, looking in a way that is at the same time both very modern and traditionally classic since she still places the human personality at the heart of reflection and accepts responsibility as a central concept. The most useful lesson that Irène Agapidaki hopes thus to administer is that we will always be able – and therefore we should all of us, without exception – seize opportunity in both hands. The author says this teaching applies to Greece in this time of crisis. Doctor of psychology Irène Agapidaki is one of the people who got themselves known through their messages on Facebook. She therefore says that Facebook has become a veritable Agora. Now, however, her voice is starting to be heard beyond social media through blogs and articles in newspapers. This book includes a range of different texts in which she seriously criticises political leaders and makes practical comments on aspects of the unacceptable situation experienced by many citizens in Greece today. These little snapshots of lives are used for fresh and refined analyses of current policy, with the author decrypting the psychological dimension of political behaviour and of politicians and citizens, all accompanied by a touch of smart derision for comments made by various political players.
(AKa)
*** Dokumente / Documents. Zeitschrift für den deutsch-französischen Dialog / Revue du dialogue franco-allemand. Verlag Dokumente (1 j Birker Strasse, D-53797 Lohmar. Tel: (49-2246) 9499220 – Fax: 9499222 – Email: aboservice@dokumente-documents.info – Internet: http://www.dokumente-documents.info ). 2017, No. 4, €7. Subscription: €18-90.
This bilingual review launched at the end of World War Two by Jesuit Jean du Riveau so that French and Germans could learn to understand each other better and hold dialogue in order to enter a useful partnership for both sides contains in this issue a rich special report on questions of identity. Editor-in-chief Gérard Foussier explains that it was thought up in order to get readers to not confuse ‘chauvinism, patriotism and populism,’ with the authors also inviting readers to reflect on culture and civilisation. For example, Thomas Jansen, who was secretary general of the European People’s Party at a time when it was more Christian Democrat than Conservative, observes that the European Union, its polices and acquis are an expression of the member states’ identity and, through them, the identity of citizens, which doesn’t mean, he says, that a European identity as such actually exists. This opinion clearly deserves verification by asking citizens themselves what they think of it. This issue also contains a number of contributions on the fresh air breathed on the European Union by President Macron and how Germany is reacting.
(MT)