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Rethinking Ethnicity: Majority Groups and Dominant Minorities
edited by Eric P. Kaufmann, Birkbeck College, University of London, UK

Routledge
April 2004: 234x156: 272pp: illus. 5 line drawings and 3 tables
Hb: 0-415-31542-5: £70.00
Pb: 0-415-31543-3: £21.99

Market: Race and Ethnicity Studies and Politics

Published by: Taylor and Francis Group


Synopsis:
The impact of liberal globalization and multiculturalism means that nations are under pressure to transform their national identities from an ethnic to a civic mode. This has led, in many cases, to dominant ethnic decline, but also to its peripheral revival in the form of Far Right politics. At the same time, the growth of mass democracy and the decline of post-colonial and Cold War state unity in the developing world has opened the floodgates for assertions of ethnic dominance. This volume investigates both tendencies and argues forcefully for the importance of dominant ethnicity in the contemporary world.

' Rethinking Ethnicity is a fascinating collection of studies of political status seeking and status reversal on the part of dominant or once dominant ethnic groups. With its bountiful array of materials, it presents a panoramic picture of ethnic change and of efforts to thwart it' - Professor Donald L. Harowitz, Duke University

'Agnès Maillot has produced a perceptive, lively and well informed reading of the Sinn Féin movement, north and south of the border. Her clear, structured analysis explores the complex interplay between past and present so central to an understanding of the republican mindset and provides a well-documented assessment of the emerging strategies of what is perhaps the most controversial party in Ireland.' - Professor Wesley Hutchinson, Universite Paris 7





Contents:
Part 1: Conceptualizing Dominant Ethnicity
1. Introduction Dominant Ethnicity: From background to foreground Eric Kaufmann
2. Ethnic Cores and Dominant Ethnies Anthony D. Smith
3. The Identity and Changing Status of Former Elite Minorities: The contrasting cases of north Indian muslims and American 'WASPs' Theodore Wright
4. Dominant Ethnicity and Dominant Nationhood: With a focus on Switzerland, Mexico and Iraq Andreas Wimmer

Part 2: Dominant Ethnicity in Transition
5. The Decline of the 'WASP' in Canada and the United States Eric Kaufmann
6. Pure Laine' Québecois in Quebec Danielle Juteau
7. The Concept of 'Dominant Ethnicity' in the Case of France Dominique Schnapper
8. The Strange Death of Protestant Britain Steve Bruce 9. Russians as a Dominant Ethnie Geoffrey Hosking

Part 3: Dominant Ethnicity Resurgent
10. Citizenship, Immigration and Ethnic Hegemony in Japan Keiko Yamanaka
11. Towards a Theory of Ethnocratic Regimes: Learning from the judaization of Israel/Palestine Oren Yiftachel and As'ad Ghanem
12. 'Majority Ethnic' Claims and Authoritarian Nationalism: The case of Hindutva Chetan Bhatt
13. The Dynamics of Ethnic Minority Domination in Fiji Ralph Premdas