The Case for Nationalism audiobook

I am giving this four stars because Lowry writes well and I think gets his point across well, which is not always the case. Ultimately, however, his case is wrong--not because he's wrong about nationalism's importance, but--because he posits a national narrative that is deeply ideaological and a product of 1980s movement conservatism. Conservatism has moved on since this book was written and the intellectual clarity that has come from the Trump years shows that the story Lowry tells is really a hodgepodge of different narratives welded together in the later post-war era to actuate a sort of right-liberalism that defined the Reagan era. This isnt to say that right liberalism was entirely bad; it served good purposes in the capable hands of Reagan. But we're a long way from 1981. Lowry seems to want to protect legacy or movement conservatism while also trying to reconcile what Trump shook loose. But in trying to do the former, he relies on tropes that ultimately led to movement conservatism's failures. So this book needs to be read because many conservatives still think like Lowry does and thats entirely understandable. But we're as far away from Reagan's inauguration was in 1981 as that event was from Pearl Harbor...see my point?

A cogent, articulate, occasionally polemic, response to globalism/cosmopolitanism that makes a great deal of sense and explains much of the schism in America today...the world too. One of the best books of the year. Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars. A must-read no matter which side of the argument you're on.

Well written and argued by Lowry.

Should nationalism be a dirty word? Or should Americans of good will reclaim this term from neo-Nazis and even Donald Trump?The author is actually somewhat sympathetic to Trump's movement, being the editor of the conservative magazine National Review. Though I lean liberal, I found much to appreciate in this book. Today, people on both the right and left get nationalism wrong. The far left would have America disintegrate into a constellation of interest groups based on identity politics of race, gender, and class. The far right would have our country shut our borders to all immigration and create a reserve for white Christians. Neither is what nationalism has been about when it's helped Americans accomplish great achievements in the past.There's a good reason why leaders from Lincoln and Frederick Douglass to FDR to MLK appealed to common American ideals and a shared culture and history. Nationalism helped Americans unite their moral forces enough to abolish slavery, defeat Hitler, and end legal discrimination against African Americans--and then, to send a man to the moon.Perhaps the best part of this book is about the "Treason of the Elites." CEOs and professionals fly around and attend conferences at luxury hotels and talk about how they're "citizens of the world." They make cosmopolitanism, which used to be a fringe philosophy, sound altruistic, advanced, and ultimately, in an age of global capital and social media, unstoppable. Meanwhile, these elites use the machinery of national governments to destroy jobs and siphon off the wealth of Americans into offshore accounts. No wonder these well connected and well traveled folks who aren't loyal to America at all don't want the rest of us to be American nationalists. Then we might catch on to their con game of using our country as a platform for their personal aggrandizement.Just because Steve Bannon hit on these themes to rile up angry white voters in the Rust Belt to vote for Trump doesn't mean that cosmopolitan elites aren't in fact selling the rest of us out. It just means that, if we recognize a problem, we need to be careful about solutions.Today, as our country faces greater polarization than anytime since the Vietnam War, and with prospects of things only getting more heated and angry, anyone who cares about our common country would do well to consider Lowry's ideas on how shared national culture can help us all work together to solve the problems that most vex our politics today.

This book paints a true picture of American history both the good and bad. Every student of America, which means all of us, should read this book.🇺🇸

This book is well-researched and articulate, but I had to dock a star because I disagree with some of the opinions posited. My favorite chapter is, “The Exemplar Of Ancient Israel,” which, as a zionist, I wholeheartedly agree with. I appreciate Lowry’s de-emphasis on race, as he succinctly says on page 232, “We are all Thomas Jefferson and W.C. Handy, the Pilgrims and Frederick Douglass, British and African, black and white, sitting at a vast Thanksgiving table within sight of an enormous flat-screen tuned to a Lions or Cowboys game under the watchful gaze of a red, white and blue-bedecked Eagle, sharing, laughing, squabbling, commiserating, and doing it all loudly, in the distinct, instantly recognizable American style that makes its indelible imprint on us all.” I didn’t appreciate the pro-Trump sentiments in the intro and the epilogue, but it’s interesting to hear other people’s opinions.

Mr.Lowry presents a thorough analysis as to how nationalism is essential to healthy nation-state. Nationalism has been much aligned by the left as a form of racism, fascism and white superiority; all of which is a false narrative. Nationalism preserved the Union during the Civil war: Without Nationalism the Revolutionary war never would have happened and through the years Nationalism furthered the acquisition off territorial land masses of the Louisiana purchase, Texas, Alaska and most of all the we the southwest including California.A must read for students of American History.

I liked this book very much. I would have awarded five stars if the first chapters were as driving as the final chapters. It should be read by all citizens who mistakenly think that nationalism is synonymous with white privilege and who are concerned about the destruction of our American freedoms, culture and history, and the rapid movement toward socialism. Rich Lowry in a short volume makes all the arguments in favor of the necessity of preserving and building nationalism.

Nationalism is for everyone Lowry makes a compelling and sensible case for love of country and our promotion of same - toward the betterment and benefit of ALL its citizens. Failure to do so puts us all in peril.

Good book. Gives a brief history of this great country and how we came to be. It also outlines some of our mistakes and how we rose above. The only question I have now is what are we doing today in society that we will one day look back on with embarrassment and shame?

I really believe that this should be read by all history and political science teachers in The US.

Well developed thoughts throughout this book. I found Rich Lowery to be a like-minded patriot. I was hoping for a little more treatment of contrasting Nationalism with Globalism.