Who Do We Think We Are?

Book excerpt: In this timely and well-argued book, author Philip Nicholson offers a provocative explanation of the force and place of race in modern history, showing that race and nation have a linked history. Using the deliberately ironic metaphor of the double helix, the author shows the close historical connection of race and nation as each interrelates with the other in shaping and carrying social and institutional practices over many centuries. Five themes recur throughout the work: modernity is built on the twin pillars of race and nation; national instability, rivalry, and imperial conquest -- outside of dynastic, religious, or feudal disputes -- evoke differential (i.e., racial) human social categories, loyalties, and mythologies; racial vilification emerges out of material and cultural expropriation; racial degradation is typically the inverse projection of dominant national normative values, beliefs, or ideals; and race and nation share in the twists and turns of modern history and are inseparably linked and interdependent.