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Reviews
| The Rise of Nationalism in Venezuela, by Jonathan Eastwood. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2006. 212 pages. $59.95, cloth.
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| This is an often thought provoking, sometimes frustrating exploration of the birth of nationalism in the eighteenth- and early-nineteenth-century Spanish world and in Venezuela in particular. As might be expected of a scholarly monograph, Eastwood's book is written for an audience of scholars familiar with the literature on the topic, and as such is not suitable as a reading in most high school history classes and may even be a challenge for the history teacher. In addition to the author's assumptions of reader knowledge of the wars of independence in northern South America, he also relies on a theoretical model in sociology that he leaves undefined which considerably narrows the book's audience. This said, for the sufficiently prepared reader, the book presents intriguing insights into Venezuelan nationalism past and present. |
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In his introduction, Eastwood defines some of his terms and situates this work within the scholarly discussion of nationalism, particularly in Latin America. Through a critique of the perennialist and/or primordialist and the structuralist schools of thought on nationalism, and a special focus on the perceived failings of Benedict Anderson's ÒImagined CommunitiesÓ thesis, Eastwood joins the constructivist school, represented in particular by the work of Liah Greenfeld. (Greenfeld was Eastwood's dissertation committee director and mentor.) After a discussion of Greenfeld's definition of nationalism, he introduces her typology of nations: individualistic-civic, collectivistic-civic, and collectivistic-ethnic. Eastwood argues that Venezuela's nationalism is of the collectivistic-civic variety, meaning a nation seen by its members as aÒ reified agent that exists above and beyond its constituent membersÓ (collectivistic) and in which mÒembership can be coterminous with citizenshipÓ (civic) (p. 15). Eastwood argues that the collectivistic characteristic of Venezuelan nationalism hÒas allowed a suitable political-cultural environment for personalist (and often authoritarian) rulers up to the presentÓ (p. 22). He presents President Hugo Chavez as the latest example of this tendency. While Eastwood explains most of his theoretical structure well enough, he fails to define one of his key concepts, status-inconsistency, that he places at the core of Greenfeld's historical argument. [ÒN]ationalism began as an imaginative solution to a problem of acute status-inconsistency, or anomie Ó(p. 17). As such, status-inconsistency is a, perhaps the, major motive condition for the creation of any given manifestation of nationalism. A reader not familiar with this theoretical construct used in sociology will be seriously hampered in understanding of Eastwood's thesis. |
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Some of Eastwood's story is familiar territory. He traces the introduction of the idea of nationalism in Spain to French advisers to Spain's new Bourbon monarchs. Only with the invasion of Spain by Napoleon and the abdications of Carlos IV and Fernando VII did national ideas begin to spread. While at first, the elites of what was to become Venezuela supported Fernando and called for his return, the ideas of nationalism soon found their way to the Americas. Creoles identified themselves as equal members of the Spanish nation, yet suffered discrimination by their now fellow nationals, the peninsular Spanish, thus contributing to status-inconsistency and the eventual wars for independence. The author argues against those scholars who see deep roots in Spanish political culture itself and the revolution that took place in Spain for what took place in America. Eastwood writes that Spain's revolution Òwas fundamentally a matter of nationalism imported from France and cannot be understood as essentially rooted in indigenous Spanish political culture.Ó Rather, he argues that these Spanish political traditions were Òrescued (and reinterpreted along the way, lending them a meaning not originally possessed)....Ó (p. 116). |
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While not likely to be assigned for reading by high school history students, The Rise of Nationalism in Venezuela can be put to good use by the history teacher who wants to better understand the emergence of nationalism and the Latin American wars for independence. Eastwood's discussion is often thought provoking and he frequently creates a nuanced understanding of the issues involved. For example, his discussion on pages 83 and 84 of the radical nature of the conceptual changes wrought by the introduction of nationalism asks the reader to imagine the reverse, that Òyou no longer see yourself in national terms at all.Ó(p. 83). I thought at once that this would be an excellent exercise for a class. |
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| California State University, Long Beach |
Dennis Kortheuer |
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