The John W. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress presents Kluge Fellow, Krzysztof Jaskulowski, in a lecture titled "Western and Eastern nationalism?" on Thursday, February 22, 2007 at 12:00 P.M. in LJ-119, Thomas Jefferson Building, Library of Congress, 10 1st Street S.E. Washington, D.C. This event is free and open to the public; no reservations are required.
In his talk, Jaskulowski will focus on Hans Kohn who is generally regarded as the founding father of modern academic research on nationalism. It is argued that he was first to adopt a more neutral stance toward nationalism, one that made sustained attempt at dispassionate analysis of the phenomenon in order to define, classify and explain it. However, not only did he bring in a new and fresh perspective to the subject by producing broad comparative studies but he was responsible for introducing one of the basic and long-lasting themes to the study of nationalism, namely a strongly moralistic distinction between a good nationalism, which he associated with the West, and a bad nationalism typical for the non-Western world. Jaskulowski will discuss three questions: first, how did Kohn conceptualize the differences between the two types of nationalism? Second, how and why did he come to his conclusions and, finally, if it can be argued as some authors claim, that his discrimination between the two types of nationalism are valid and useful?
Request ASL and ADA accommodations five days in advance. Telephone: 202.707.6362 or Email: ADA@loc.gov.
