How nationalism and globalism can coexist

Some books have the power to change your life, to give you insights that stick with you for decades and impact the way you see the world. This essay from Amin Maalouf did that for me when I read it as a young adult in 1998. In it, Maalouf, a highly respected French author, who is now a member of the prestigious Academie Francaise, reflects on why national, ethnic, religious or cultural identities seem to be increasingly the source of countless tensions around the world, resulting in crimes, wars, terrorism and all sorts of revolting atrocities. He talks about his own identity — as among other things a French, Lebanese, Christian and Arab, writer, father, wine lover — and how its various components helped him connect with billions of fellow humans bringing joy and enrichment to his social and intellectual life. How can something as enriching as an identity become a weapon of mass destruction?

If you either love Italy, food or history, you will enjoy this book. If you love all three, you will have a lot to thank me for. This great book is both erudite and entertaining. It travels across Italy from medieval times to 2006, from the shores of Sicily to the Alps in the north. Through reading it, I was able to put words on the living and dynamic nature of national traditions.

Amartya Sen is a modern incarnation of the Renaissance's polymath geniuses. He is a Nobel Prize Indian economist that can write eloquently about any topic you can think of. This book is collection of 16 essays that address Indian culture and identity through a great variety angles that demonstrate India's extraordinary diversity and its continuous embrace of heterodoxy. He then contrasts this humanist tribute to the Indian national identity to the way Indian nationalist politicians are reducing that heritage into a pale version of itself with the dangers that may result from this process.

Claude Levi-Strauss is an intellectual giant. He wrote this little essay in 1952 as part of a series of UNESCO publications to tackle the problem of racism. Although some of the words he uses may seem outdated, this book is a powerful manifesto against ethnocentrism and the idea that one race, culture or civilization is inherently superior to the others. Levi-Strauss argues that when it comes to cultures and civilizations, protective isolation is a lethal danger while interactions and intersections are the main engine of progress. Timeless and essential!

If you can only read one book about nationalism and its genesis, this is the one. It is both powerfully conceptual and sprinkled with interesting examples from South East Asia, Latin America and Europe.

My family descends from these Moors, Jews and Christians who lived in the Middle Ages Spain. This culture and identity was so strong that it is still remembered, cherished and celebrated six to eight centuries later by the descendants of those who were exiled by the Spanish Inquisition. And yet this culture was not pure by any means. It was a splendid hybrid of Omayyad Middle Eastern culture, Persian wisdom and knowledge, Visigothic and Roman worldviews, topped with North African and Jewish elements. Maria Rosa Menocal brings this beautiful era back to life with this book that has long been one of my favorites.