Blood and Belonging

Until the end of the Cold War, the politics of national identity were confined to isolated incidents of ethnic strife and civil war in distant countries. With the collapse of Communist regimes across Europe and the loosening of the Cold War's clamp on East–West relations, a surge of nationalism swept the world stage. In Blood and Belonging, Ignatieff makes a thorough examination of why blood ties—in places as diverse as Yugoslavia, Kurdistan, Northern Ireland, Quebec, Germany, and the former Soviet republics—may be the definitive factor in international relations today. He asks how ethnic pride turned into ethnic cleansing, whether modern citizens can lay to rest the ghosts of a warring past, why—and whether—a people need a state of their own. Blood and Belonging is a profound and searching look at one of the most complex issues of our time. Winner of the Lionel Gelber Prize and the Gordon Montador Award for Best Canadian Book on Social Issues "Ignatieff's probing analysis of the meanings and consequences of 'the new nationalism' provides crucial insights into the fragility of 'civic nationalism' and the 'liberal virtues [of] tolerance, compromise, reason.'"— Booklist