The Nation and the Promise of Friendship, Sachbücher von Danny Kaplan

"As Danny Kaplan shows in this important book, the centrality of sociability and solidarity to the life of modern nations is a crucial dimension in how nations figure in both politics and public life. Moreover, the ways nations figure in personal life shapes both their power and how nationalists mobilize followers.” (Craig Calhoun, President of the Berggruen Institute and Centennial Professor of Sociology, London School of Economics, UK)"A vital contribution for those who believe that nationalism and patriotism grow out of the commitments made in interaction. States are not only structures, but, as Kaplan persuasively demonstrates, they are arenas of action. While an important theoretical advance in itself, his detailed analysis of scenes as diverse as Freemasonry, military friendships, and the show Big Brother demonstrate how friendship is a building block for patriotism and communal affiliation.” (Gary Alan Fine, Northwestern University, USA, and author of Tiny Publics)"This excellent book challenges the often vague identity-centered analyses of large-scale national formations and demonstrates convincingly that macro-level social cohesion regularly entails prolonged micro-interactional work. Danny Kaplan´s novel concept of `social club sociability´ is a major contribution to the study of nationalism.” (Siniša Maleševic, University College Dublin, Ireland, and author of Nation-States and Nationalisms).