ABSTRACT
When it comes to nationalism we might ask, to paraphrase Edwin Starr, what is it good for? And if you know your Edwin Starr, you will understand the direction the argument of this chapter will take. Against the assumption, which is commonplace enough, that there are good nationalisms and bad nationalisms and that one is worth preserving while the other should be opposed, I shall argue that nationalism is always problematic, that the basic operation of nationalism is such that its apparently benign form is better understood as a latent moment of its more malign manifestation.
