Toward a Globally Sensitive Patriotism

Author(s): Martha C. Nussbaum

Source: Daedalus, Vol. 137, No. 3, On Cosmopolitanism (Summer, 2008), pp. 78-93
Published by: The MIT Press on behalf of American Academy of Arts & Sciences
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/40543800
Accessed: 01-03-2019 00:32 UTC

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide
range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and
facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
https://about.jstor.org/terms

American Academy of Arts & Sciences, The MIT Press are collaborating with JSTOR to
digitize, preserve and extend access to Daedalus

This content downloaded from 132.248.9.8 on Fri, 01 Mar 2019 00:32:19 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 Martha C. Nussbaum

Toward a globally sensitive patriotism

In 1892, a World's Fair, called the Co- to President Benjamin Harrison with
lumbian Exposition, was scheduled to an idea : at the Exposition the president
take place in Chicago. Clearly, it was would introduce a new public ritual of
gearing up to be a celebration of unfet-patriotism, a pledge of allegiance to
tered greed and egoism. Industry and in- the flag, which would place the accent
novation were to be its central foci, as squarely on the nation's core moral val-
America planned to welcome the worldues, include all Americans as equals, and
with displays of technological prowessrededicate the nation to something more
and material enrichment. Gross inequal- than individual greed. The words that
ities of opportunity in the nation were were concocted to express these senti-
to be masked by the glowing exterior of ments were : "I pledge allegiance to the
the buildings that came to be called theflag of the United States of America, and
'White City.'1 to the republic for which it stands : one
Advocates for the poor, upset by the nation, indivisible, with liberty and jus-
plan, got together to think about how tice for all."2
the celebration might incorporate ideas As so often happens with patriotic sen-
of equal opportunity and sacrifice. A timent, however, the Pledge soon proved
a formula of both inclusion and exclu-
group of Christian socialists finally went
sion. Francis Bellamy, the Pledge's au-
Martha C. Nussbaum, a Fellow of the Ameri-
can Academy since 1988, is Ernst Freund Distin-1 All of this is well portrayed in Erik Larsen's
guished Service Professor of Law and Ethics at novel The Devil in the White City, a work of pop-
ular semifiction that has, at the same time, a
the University of Chicago. She is the author of
serious historical thesis.
numerous publications, including uForLoveof
Country" (1996), "Hiding From Humanity : Dis-
2 The history of the Pledge is exhaustively
gust, Shame, and the Law" (2004), "The Clashdocumented in Richard J. Ellis, To the Flag: The
Within : Democracy, Religious Violence, and Unlikely History of the Pledge of Allegiance (Law-

India's Future" (2007), and "Liberty of Con- rence: University Press of Kansas, 2005). The
words "under God" were added to the Pledge in
science: In Defense of America's Tradition of
1954, during the cold war. I discuss the Pledge
Religious Equality" (2008). and the legal conflicts surrounding it in Liberty
of Conscience : In Defense of America s Tradition
© 2008 by the American Academy of Arts of Religious Equality (New York: Basic Books,
& Sciences 2008), chap. 5, 8.

78 Dœdalus Summer 2008

This content downloaded from 132.248.9.8 on Fri, 01 Mar 2019 00:32:19 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
thor, was himself both a socialist and a Toward
opportunities, and a world in which
a globally
xénophobe, who feared that our nation- wars of aggression do not mar people's sensitive
al values were being undermined by the life chances, typically turn a skeptical patriotism
flood of new immigrants from southern eye on appeals to patriotic sentiment.
Europe. By the 1940s, required by law They see such sentiments as binding the
as a daily recitation in schools in many mind to something smaller than human-
states, the Pledge became a litmus test ity ; and, in a way, they are not wrong.
for the 'good' American; and those who Patriotism is a species of love that, by
flunked the test faced both exclusion and definition, is bounded rather than glob-
violence. Jehovah's Witnesses, who re- al, particularistic rather than universal.
fused to recite the Pledge for religious Although it calls the mind to many as-
reasons, seeing it as a form of idolatry, pects of humanity that lead the mind be-
soon found their children expelled from yond its domestic confines - for exam-
school for noncompliance. Then, in a ple, human need or the struggle for jus-
Catch-22, the parents were fined or jailed tice and equality - patriotism is also irre-
for " contributing to the delinquency of a ducibly attached to particular memories,
minor" because their children were not geographical features, and plans for the
in school. future.
Patriotism is Janus-faced. It faces out- If, then, our political doctrine included
ward, calling the self, at times, to dutiesthe thought that duties to all humanity
for others, to the need to sacrifice for a should always take precedence over oth-
common good, to renewed effort to ful- er duties, or the thought that particular
fill the promises of equality and dignity obligations are correctly understood to
inherent in national ideals. And yet, just be derivative from universal obligations
as clearly, it also faces inward, inviting (as a way of fulfilling, locally, those gen-
those who consider themselves 'good' eral obligations), it would be inconsis-
or 'true' Americans to distinguish them- tent with giving a large role to patriot-
selves from outsiders and subversives. ism.

Perhaps more dangerous yet, it serves

to define the nation against its foreign In my earlier writing on cosmopolitan-
rivals, whipping up warlike sentiments ism, I tentatively endorsed those two
against them. (It was for precisely this claims.4 In the meantime, however, my
reason that Jean-Jacques Rousseau ideas have changed in two ways.
thought that a good nation needed a First, having come to endorse a form
patriotic 'civil religion' in place of the of Rawlsian political liberalism, I now
dogmas of Christianity, which he found think it crucial that the political princi-
too meek and pacifistic.3) ples of a decent society not include com-
For such reasons, people committed prehensive ethical or metaphysical doc-
to the twin goals of a world in which all trines that could not be endorsed by rea-
human beings have a decent set of life sonable citizens holding a wide range

3 Jean-Jacques Rousseau, On the Social Contract, 4 Martha Nussbaum, "For Love of Country/'
book IV, chap. VIII ("On Civil Religion"). One in For Love of Country : A Debate on Patriotism and
good modern edition is in Jean-Jacques Rous- Cosmopolitanism (Boston : Beacon Press, 1996).
seau, The Basic Political Writings, trans. Donald I am extremely grateful to Paul Weithman for
A. Cress (Indianapolis : Hackett Publishing, comments that showed me the need for this
1987), 220-227. clarification.

Dœdalus Summer 2008 79

This content downloaded from 132.248.9.8 on Fri, 01 Mar 2019 00:32:19 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
Martha C. of comprehensive doctrines. Clearly, a ty of room for patriotism, especially in
Nussbaum
on
strong form of cosmopolitanism that a form that accepts the constraints of
cosmopoli- denied legitimacy to nonderivative par- global justice.
tanism
ticular obligations could not be the ob- As it happens, this position allows me
ject of an overlapping consensus in a to incorporate - both in my political
political-liberal state. Many of the rea- doctrine and in my comprehensive ethi-
sonable comprehensive religious and cal doctrine - an insight firmly grasped
secular doctrines that citizens hold do by thinkers of the late eighteenth and
insist on the importance of particularis- nineteenth centuries : that national sen-
tic forms of love and attachment, pur- timent is also a way of making the mind
sued for their own sake and not just as bigger, calling it away from its immer-
derivative from universal duties to hu- sion in greed and egoism toward a set of
manity. (Indeed, duties to God, in most values connected to a decent common
religions, are particularistic in this way.) life and the need for sacrifices connected
So even if I had continued to endorse to that common life.
cosmopolitanism as a correct compre- Italian revolutionary and nationalist
hensive ethical position, I would not Giuseppe Mazzini, seeing the many ways
have made it the foundation of political in which the rise of capitalism threat-
principles for either a nation or a world ened any common project involving per-
order. sonal sacrifice, believed that national
I do not, however, even endorse cos- sentiment was a valuable "fulcrum," on
mopolitanism as a correct comprehen- which one could ultimately leverage uni-
sive doctrine. Further thought about versal sentiment toward the goal of a
Stoic cosmopolitanism, and particular- just world. He doubted that the immedi-
ly the strict form of it developed by Mar- ate appeal to love all humanity could
cus Aurelius, persuaded me that the de- motivate people deeply sunk in greed,
nial of particular attachments leaves life but he thought that the idea of the na-
empty of meaning for most of us, with tion might acquire a strong motivational
the human psychology and the develop- force even when people were rushing to
mental history we have. The dark side enrich themselves.
of Stoic thought is the conviction that Mazzini' s argument for patriotic senti-
life contains merely a sequence of mean- ment goes something like this.
ingless episodes, once particular attach- 1. It is good, ultimately, for all human
ments have been uprooted; and the solu- beings to care strongly about the
tion to problems of particular attach- good of all humanity.
ments ought not to be this total uproot-
ing, so destructive of the human person- 2. Human beings are, by nature, some-
ality. what narrow and particularistic in
It should be, instead, an uneven dia- their concerns, and are not able to
lectical oscillation within ourselves, as form a strong attachment to all hu-
we accept the constraints of some strong manity directly.
duties to humanity, and then ask our-
3. Human beings are, however, able to
selves how far we are entitled to devote
form a strong attachment to the na-
ourselves to the particular people and tion, seen as the embodiment of both
places whom we love.
memory of past struggles and com-
This, then, is my current comprehen- mitments to a common future.
sive ethical position, and it makes plen-

80 Dœdalus Summer 2008

This content downloaded from 132.248.9.8 on Fri, 01 Mar 2019 00:32:19 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
4. The nation, because of its connection more doubt that the nation is the largest Toward
a globally
with common memory, episodes of unit to which human beings are capable sensitive
suffering, and common hopes, is the of feeling a strong and vivid loyalty. Any patriotism
largest unit to which such strong at- contemporary argument for sentiments
tachments can be directly formed. that give the nation a special place must
begin, then, by explaining why it ought
5. Such national sentiments, if rightly
to have any place at all.
targeted on things of genuine impor-
tance, such as human liberty and hu-
iVJLy own argument for patriotism is
man need, will give people practice in
rather different from Mazzini' s, but
caring about something larger than reaches a similar conclusion : national
themselves, jolting them out of the
sentiment can play a valuable role in cre-
egoism that is all too prevalent and
ating a decent world culture. I contend
preparing them for enlarged concern that:
for the liberty and well-being of all hu-
manity. 1. The nation-state, including a strong
form of national sovereignty, is an im-
6. Human beings ought to cultivate pa- portant good for all human beings, if
triotic sentiment, as a basis for global the state takes a certain (liberal, dem-
concern.
ocratic) form. Any decent world cul-
Mazzini offers an attractive route out ture should promote the continued
of egoism to global concern through a sovereignty and autonomy of (liberal
rightly focused nationalism. These days, and democratic) nation-states and
however, one might doubt premise 4. In protect the rights of citizenship asso-
the nineteenth century, nations looked ciated with them.

very large. As Germany and Italy were 2. Nation-states of the sort described
unifying, pulling nations together out cannot remain stable without moral
of disparate regional entities and the loy- sentiments attached to their institu-
alties they had traditionally inspired, it
tions and their political culture.
seemed natural to think that calling the
mind to the nation was already a way 3. The sentiments required cannot be
of calling it to something very vast. The supplied merely by allegiances to
success of that call seemed, to many peo- smaller units, such as families ; cities ;
ple, to show that global concern was regions ; and ethnic, racial, or gender
only a step away. John Stuart Mill even groups : they must have the nation
said that the world was simply a "larger (under some description) as their
country,"5 and that the strength of patri- object.
otic feeling showed that his "religion of
4. So, there is a good reason for nations
humanity" was possible.
of the sort described to engender sen-
Today, we are much more skeptical
about the nation. We think of it as small- timents of love and support in their
citizens.
er, not larger, as confining the mind
rather than enlarging it. Many people 5. National states of the sort described
believe that nations should not exist in need the moral sentiments even more
a future decent world order, and many if they are going to undertake proj-
ects that require considerable sacri-
5 J. S. Mill, 'The Utility of Religion," 1874
fice of self-interest, such as substantial
(posthumously published).

Dcedalus Summer 2008 8l

This content downloaded from 132.248.9.8 on Fri, 01 Mar 2019 00:32:19 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
Martha C. internal redistribution or copious for- ever, ultimately fall short of the nation-
Nussbaum
on
eign aid, the overcoming of discrimi- state in accountability and protection of
cosmopoli- nation against traditionally marginal- basic rights, at least at the present time.
tanism
ized groups, or the protection of allies We should keep reexamining these cases
against unjust domination. as new information becomes available.
But currently, and for the foreseeable fu-
6. Such projects are good projects for ture, nations are critical for the promo-
nations to undertake. Therefore, we
tion of people's well-being and life op-
have even stronger reasons for the cul-
portunities.
tivation of nation-directed moral sen-
As for my premise 2, Rawls defends
timents.
this in A Theory of Justice, especially since
How would one defend premise i ? his state is very ambitious in the sacri-
The classic defense is Grotian : a legit- fices it asks of its members in the name
imate national state provides people of justice.8 Habermas offers a similar
with a role in creating the institutions moralized account of supportive senti-
and laws that govern them. It is thus a ment, in his defense of a "constitutional
key expression of human autonomy. patriotism."9
One may have a lot of autonomy else- It is plausible, however, that the mor-
where in one's life, but if one has no al sentiments on which Rawls relies are
voice in the choice of policies affecting a bit too transparently rationalistic to
one's society's 'basic structure,' i.e., the do the job he assigns to them. He fails
set of institutions that governs one's life to consider (although he does not deny)
chances pervasively and from the start that an essential motivational role, in
of a human life,6 one is cut off from an connection with the love of just institu-
extremely important good. tions, may be played by more indirect
Of course, other institutions might do appeals to the emotions, using symbols,
this job equally well, or even better : the memories, poetry, narrative. People are
world state ; the large NGO ; the United sometimes moved by the love of just in-
Nations ; the multinational corporation ; stitutions presented just as such ; but the
the ethnic group ; the state, the city, the human mind is quirky and particularis-
family.7 All of these can be decisively tic, more easily able to conceive a strong
rejected, however, on grounds of ac- attachment if these high principles are
cess and accountability. The contenders connected to a particular set of memo-
that have not been eliminated are a fed-
ries, symbols, narrative, and poetry.
eration of nations, such as the EU, and My claim is that the emotions of citi-
smaller self-governing units within a zens in a Rawlsian well-ordered society
federal nation, such as the states of the
United States and of India. Such political 8 John Rawls, A Theory of Justice (Cambridge,
entities do offer some reasonable degree Mass. : Harvard University Press, 1971), 479 -
504. Although Rawls came to doubt the spe-
of access and accountability. Both, how-
cifics of this section by the time he wrote Politi-
cal Liberalism, he continued to assert that the
6 This definition of 'basic structure' is that just society needed to operate with a "reason-
used by Rawls in Political Liberalism. able political psychology."

7 On the world state, see Martha Nussbaum, 9 Juergen Habermas, "Citizenship and Nation-
Frontiers of Justice : Disability, Nationality, Speciesal Identity : Some Reflections on the Future of
Membership (Cambridge, Mass. : Belknap Press Europe," Praxis International 12 (1992 - 1993) :
of Harvard University Press, 2007), 313 - 314. 1-19.

82 Dœdalus Summer 2008

This content downloaded from 132.248.9.8 on Fri, 01 Mar 2019 00:32:19 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
are, or should be, like this : that is, fixed global justice. Since my conception re- Toward
a globally
on the moral meanings of the political quires a high degree of sacrifice, it will sensitive
conception (thus attaining stability for need to call patriotism to its aid. If the patriotism
the right reasons, and not merely a tradi- patriotism in question is to be of the
tion-governed type of stability), but held right sort, much thought must be given
to those meanings by rituals and narra- to questions concerning which senti-
tives of a kind that must be more partic- ments should be fostered and which
ular, more uneven, more aesthetic, more avoided.
tragic, and more silly than anything ex- Before I discuss these sentiments, I
plicitly envisaged in Rawls's text. must add two preliminary notes. First,
These rituals and narratives might since the society I take as my starting
possibly be confined to what Rawls calls point is a classically liberal one, with
the "background culture" - but on the ample protections for freedoms of
other hand, inasmuch as they are essen- speech and association,11 the public cul-
tial vehicles of public reason, there is no tivation of sentiment will not be a form
reason to confine them to that role. Can- of coercive enforcement; later on I shall
didates for election, legislators, and even insist on a key role for a vigorous criti-
judges might use such symbols and poet- cal culture as part of what will make
ic references, and songs and stories, if the whole enterprise work. So what I
they do so in a way that reinforces and am talking about is public persuasion,
deepens the moral meaning of the politi- about the many ways in which public
cal conception. We just need to be sure leaders and educators cultivate senti-
that citizens develop a type of 'purified' ments through rhetoric and example.
patriotism that is reliably linked to the Second, any nation is a narrative, a
deeper principles of the political con- story in which memory of the past and
ception, that does not exalt the United aspiration for the future are salient.
States (for example) above other na- But any national narrative is an inter-
tions, and that focuses on suffering hu- pretation. Some past events are made
manity wherever it occurs.10 salient and others are not. Some aspects
of founding documents are brought
In order to talk about the sentiments of forward and others are left behind. The

a 'purified' patriotism, we need to have a moral form of patriotism that I am try-

normative conception of a decent socie- ing to articulate here will need to attend
ty, since it is the institutions and entitle- carefully to issues of interpretation, se-
ments of such a society that such senti- lecting from the many versions of a na-
ments would support. Let me, for the tion's history the one that makes best
sake of argument, stipulate that the (na- constructive sense against the back-
tional) society has committed itself to ground of the core moral commitments
my capabilities approach, which guaran- of the decent society. If the nation is a
tees to all citizens a threshold level of new one, the interpreter has somewhat
ten central opportunities, or capabilities, more freedom of selection; nonetheless,
and that also assigns to the richer na- this freedom is not total, since the cre-
tions some definite, and rather exigent, ator of patriotism for a new nation still
duties of foreign aid in the pursuit of needs to link the nation to the past of its

10 David Miller, On Nationality (Oxford: Clar-

endon Press, 1995). 11 See Nussbaum, Frontiers, chap. 1, 3.

Dcedalus Summer 2008 83

This content downloaded from 132.248.9.8 on Fri, 01 Mar 2019 00:32:19 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
Martha C.
people, their memories of struggle, and On one point, however, a modern pa-
Nussbaum
on their religious and ethnic traditions. triotism must to some extent diverge
cosmopoli- Which moral sentiments will help and from Herder: we must not base patriotic
tanism
which will hinder the creator of a puri- sentiment on any ethnolinguistic homo-
fied patriotism for the decent society geneity, or on any religious sentiments
envisaged in the capability approach? that are divisive. It must appeal to senti-
There is a limit to how useful any gen- ments that bind together the citizens of
eral answer to this question can be, in modern democracies that are diverse in
advance of knowing what historical ma- religion and ethnicity, all of whom must
terials we have to work with, and what be treated as fully equal citizens.
problems the patriot is facing. Patriot- Moreover, we need to say much more
ism, like and as a species of love, is par- than Herder does concerning the specific
ticularistic. Nonetheless, we can say moral sentiments that a true statecraft
something about what is generally help- and a purified patriotism should call to
ful or harmful -just as we can in the case its aid. Central to the stability of any so-
of familial or romantic love. ciety that asks people to make sacrifices
Johann Gottfried Herder, in the eigh- will be the sentiment of compassion, to-
teenth century, wrote well about the gether with an ability to imagine vividly
moral sentiments a wise leader would the predicaments of others. People will
need to create.12 Revealingly, he called not be moved to address poverty con-
these "dispositions of peace." These dis- structively, or to give copious foreign
positions, he said, would include a hor- aid, without a carefully constructed and
ror of war ; a "reduced respect for heroic moralized compassion that addresses
glory" ; a loathing of a "false statecraft" the predicaments of the poor, seeing
that connects national glory to warlike them as both serious and not caused
expansionist projects ; a "purified patri- simply by laziness or bad behavior. This
otism" that would breed contempt for compassion must learn a lesson from
aggression against other nations and, ancient Greek tragedy in the following
equally, for internal hatreds and group sense : it must combine compassion for
animosities; "feelings of justice towards the plight of the suffering person with
other nations," including sentiments respect for that person's agency, treat-
of pain when another nation is dispar- ing the person not as a passive victim
aged or treated badly; humane feelings of fortune, but as a human being striv-
about international trade relations, so ing, often heroically, against great ob-
that people would feel upset when weak- stacles.
er nations "get sacrificed . . . for a profit Because compassion is not intrinsical-
that they do not even receive" ; and, fi- ly reliable - for example, people usually
nally, a love of useful activity on behalf feel compassion more strongly toward
of human well-being, together with a the near and dear than toward the dis-
dislike of attempts to promote well-be- tant - it must therefore be carefully con-
ing through war. structed in connection with the nation's
moral norms.
Two other useful sentiments - with-
12 In "Letters for the Advancement of Human-
in proper limits - are anger and hope.
ity" (1793 - 1797), translated by Michael Forster
Anger may be misdirected, but no strug-
in Forster, ed., Herder: Philosophical Writings
(Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, gle against injustice can do without it.
2002), Letter 119, 404 - 409. Leaders will need to try to construct an

84 Dœdalus Summer 2008

This content downloaded from 132.248.9.8 on Fri, 01 Mar 2019 00:32:19 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 Toward
anger that is targeted at injustices, not told, is able to be totally self-sufficient.
a globally
at people ; that is firmly linked to nonvi- Any kind of weakness or need is a sign sensitive
olent political struggle ; and that offers, of compromised masculinity. Studies patriotism
in the distance, possibilities of mercy of disturbed adolescents in the United
and reconciliation. Hope is an essential States show how this sort of shame, in
comrade of a reasonable anger, since connection with diseased norms of man-
people will only stick with nonviolence, liness, leads to aggression against the
and hope for reconciliation, if they do weak and against women.13
not despair. In my recent study of religious vio-
What, by contrast, does a wise state- lence in India,14 1 found that shame was
craft need to watch out for and try hard a key element in the violence of militant
not to construct? In Hiding from Humani- Hindus against Muslims, in the 2002
ty I argue that two of the most dangerous Gujarat pogrom and elsewhere. Hindu
moral sentiments for a decent society males tell themselves a story of centuries
are disgust and shame. Both arise in ear- of humiliation - first at the hands of the
ly childhood in a primitive form, and Muslims, then at the hands of the Brit-
both take as their first object the insuf- ish. Out of this collective sense that their
ficiencies of the human body, its neces- virility has been compromised emerges
sary mortality, weakness, and depen- a narrative of the shame-free nation of
dency. These features of human life are the future, one that will be so successful-
difficult for ambitious and intelligent ly aggressive, so efficient in cleansing the
beings to endure, and are the source of land of the ones who are blamed for the
much instability in the moral life. In dis- humiliation, that Hindu pride will reign
gust, people initially reject the effluvia supreme and inviolate. This story is a
and decay of the animal body. Usually, large part of what fuels violence against
however, things don't stop there, as peo- Muslims, as well as sexual violence
ple find a group of humans onto whom against Muslim women.
they can project the discomfort they feel So the good sort of patriotism will
about their own bodies, calling them have to attend carefully to shame and
smelly, slimy, disgusting, and so forth. to images of masculinity, seeking to cul-
Much racial hatred, and most misogyny, tivate an acceptance of bodily vulnera-
has such elements, as does the hatred of bility as a part of daily life and to prevent
homosexuals. A politician who appeals the formation of diseased stereotypes
to disgust in the public realm is a dan- of the real man. These ideas converge,
gerous person, one who is seeking to ex- clearly, with Herder's ideas about the
ploit for divisive purposes the discom- need to discourage people from seeing
fort that people feel at having a body that glory in aggressive military exploits.
will die and decay.
Shame is more complex, since shame
can sometimes call us to high ideals that
we have let slide through laziness or ob- 13 Dan Kindlon and Michael Thompson, Rais-
tuseness. But there is a type of shame, ing Cain : Protecting the Emotional Life of Boys
(New York: Ballantine, 1999).
or 'primitive shame/ that focuses on
the alleged shamefulness of the very 14 Martha Nussbaum, The Clash Within : Democ-
fact of needing others, that seeks a rock- racy, Religious Violence, and India's Future (Cam-
hard type of invulnerability and calls bridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 2007),
that manliness. A 'real man/ so we are chap. 6.

Dœdalus Summer 2008 85

This content downloaded from 132.248.9.8 on Fri, 01 Mar 2019 00:32:19 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
Martha C. jl's my story of the Pledge of Allegiance Fourth, getting the good out of a puri-
Nussbaum
on
shows, even a purified patriotism has its fied patriotism requires education about
cosmopoli- dangers. Although we turn to patriotism foreign cultures and domestic minori-
tanism
to render good institutions stable (for ties. Panic and xenophobia are always
the right reasons), the good in patriot- more difficult to sustain when people are
ism may itself be unstable in times of acquainted with complex historical facts
anxiety. Law and institutional structure regarding the groups they encounter. For
are therefore essential props to the good example, if schools in Europe and the
in patriotism. Five factors contribute to United States were doing their job teach-
our getting the good out of patriotism ing people about the varieties of Islam,
without the bad. the current atmosphere of panic would
The first is constitutional rights and be far more difficult to sustain.
an independent judiciary. Constitution- Finally, purified patriotism requires
al rights are bulwarks for minorities a vigorous critical culture. Kant empha-
against the panic and excess of majori- sized perhaps the most important fac-
ties. Because minorities are always at tor : protection of the freedom of speech
risk from patriotism, which can often and dissent, and of the voices of intellec-
stir majority sentiment against them, a tuals who play leading roles in shaping
purified patriotism needs to be advanced a critical public culture. Schools need to
in conjunction with a firm and compre- foster this critical culture from the ear-
hensive tradition of constitutional rights liest years, by teaching children that the
protecting all citizens, and an indepen- ability to think critically is one of the
dent judiciary, detached from public bias most essential abilities of the democrat-
and panic, as these rights' interpreter. ic citizen, and that learning by rote and
A second factor is a separation of pow- thinking by habit are the marks of the
ers that makes going to war more diffi- bad citizen.
cult. Herder thinks of a horror of war as Indeed, although the United States is
the very core of a purified patriotism. far from having as vigorous a critical cul-
But a people's horror of war will not stop ture as it ought to have, my story of the
leaders from making war in the absence Pledge of Allegiance owes its relatively
of political structure. War-making pow- happy denouement to the critical culture
ers should reside in the legislature, and it does have. After the Supreme Court
executive authority to initiate and con- decision upholding the constitutionality
tinue wars should be severely contained. of the laws mandating the daily pledge
Next, protections for the rights of im- recitation and flag salute15 - notice that
migrants are necessary. Patriotism al- even the independent judiciary was led
ways risks veering into xenophobia, and astray by patriotic fervor - there was a
xenophobia often takes new immigrant tremendous outburst of protest from the
groups as its targets. In addition to pro- public, led by journalists and intellectu-
tections for minorities who already en- als, but joined by people of goodwill all
joy citizens' rights, a purified patriotism over the nation. The Court reacted to the
needs to be advanced in conjunction public critique of its arguments by hear-
with firm protections for the rights of ing, only a short time later, a similar
legal immigrants who are not (or not
yet) citizens, and decent arrangements
for illegal immigrants. 15 Minersville School Dist. v. Gobitis, 310 U.S. 596
(1940).

86 Dœdalus Summer 2008

This content downloaded from 132.248.9.8 on Fri, 01 Mar 2019 00:32:19 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
case, taking that occasion to change its ground : only the bravery of the fallen Toward
a globally
mind. In Board of Education v. Barnette, can do so. Living people are thus led to- sensitive
Justice Jackson observed that national- ward an attitude of reverential emula- patriotism
ism often seeks to "coerce uniformity of tion of the sacrifice of the fallen. Lincoln
sentiment," and insisted that we must be then asks that dedication of them : we
vigilant against all such attempts.16 are all to be dedicated to the task of pre-
serving the American democracy, and
JnListory contains countless examples to giving it "a new birth of freedom."
showing how bold projects requiring He ends on the note of urgency he has
sacrifice derive support from moral emo- sounded throughout : the struggle is real-
tions directed at the nation and its histo- ly over whether democracy itself can
exist.
ry. Let us look at two different cases : the
attempt to end the injustice of slavery Lincoln's speech contains appeals to
and racial discrimination in the United a constitutional patriotism that would
States, and the attempt to forge a new have pleased Rawls and Habermas. But it
Indian nation dedicated to combating does much more : in its vivid invocation

economic inequality. In each case I shall of the founding, its heartfelt mourning
focus on political rhetoric - not because for the fallen soldiers, its appeal to re-
I do not believe that sculpture, music, newed commitment, it puts historical
public parks, and many other things are and contemporary flesh on these moral
also important, but simply because polit- bones.
ical rhetoric is the easiest to describe in Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address
an essay. In the case of Gandhi, however, is another interesting Herderian docu-
some description of his self-dramatiza- ment, because it carefully positions the
tion and his use of theater will prove es- Union as the side that wanted and des-
sential. perately tried to avoid war. The survival
Abraham Lincoln's speeches insis- of the nation is the starting point : the
South would rather "make war" rather
tently focus on the history of the Unit-
ed States, offering a constructive ac- than see it survive, while the North was
count of its core values that underwrites willing to "accept war" rather than see it
his request for continued sacrifice. The perish. The two sides are asymmetrical
Gettysburg Address, for example, be- in their relationship to the nation : the
gins with memory, with the mention secessionist struggle of the South is a
of "fourscore and seven years," remind- war of aggression against the body of
ing people that the nation, so imperiled the nation, and the Union's response is
at present, had a beginning. It was "a a just response to aggression. Thus the
new nation," with a distinctive set of speech does what Herder wanted, nur-
ideals focusing on liberty and equality. turing a horror of war and a reluctance
to make war.
Lincoln observes that the present war
tests whether any nation of this sort The situation of the slaves now enters

"can long endure." Praising the sacri- the picture, and the fact that the South
fice of those who died (in a battle that is motivated by greed is emphasized.
was one of the war's bloodiest), he then On one side, then, we have people moti-
says that the living cannot hallow the vated by self-interest, who "wring their
bread from the sweat of other men's

16 Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624 faces" and even ask God to help them
(1943). do it. On the other are those who would

Dœdalus Summer 2008 87

This content downloaded from 132.248.9.8 on Fri, 01 Mar 2019 00:32:19 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
Martha C. include the slaves as human beings and extraordinary voice. Nobody could
Nussbaum
on
citizens who count, "one-eighth of the doubt that it is a masterpiece of rheto-
cosmopoli- whole population." The nation is now ric, and that its achievements go well
tanism
allied with respect and inclusion, the se- beyond the abstract sentiments that it
cessionist movement with egoism and conveys. Its soaring images of freedom
false religion. and revelation, and its musical cadences,
Finally, however, the speech appeals, all give the bare ideas of freedom, dig-
famously, to mercy and forgiveness - nity, inclusion, and nonviolence wings,
"With malice toward none, with chari- so to speak. What I want to study more
ty for all" - since the nation is wounded closely here is the way in which King
and its wounds must be "bound up." appeals to the history and traditions of
Mercy does not compromise "firmness the nation, and to sentiments connected
in the right, " but it gives us a way of go- to an idea of America that is, once again,
ing on together into an uncertain future. interpretive, using general ideals to criti-
This speech contains admirable prin- cize an unjust reality.
ciples, but its use of image and narrative, The speech begins with an allusion
and its rhythmic cadences of language, to the Gettysburg Address - "Five score
are what make the moral principles years ago" - positioning itself as its next
come alive, in ways that could be inter- chapter. Just as Lincoln looked back to
nalized by children, forging their deep- the founding as a moment of commit-
est images of what their nation is. Said ment to ideals that he sees as gravely
together in schools by black and white threatened, so King looks back to Lin-
children together, it reminds them of the coln's freeing of the slaves as a moment
history of pain and struggle, but also of of commitment whose promise is still
Americans' capacity for respect, love, unrealized. He uses a mundane, and very
and sheer endurance. It constructs an American, image for that failure. The
interpretive patriotism, using general Constitution and the Declaration of In-
ideals to criticize historical wrongs. dependence were a "promissory note,"
The speech ends on a strongly uni- but the nation has "defaulted," giving
versalistic note : "To do all which may the Negro people a "bad check" that has
achieve and cherish a just and lasting come back marked "insufficient funds."
peace among ourselves and with all na- King constructs an image of America:
tions." This comes easily, because when the virtue of fiscal rectitude on which
a nation is conceived around ideas of in- Americans pride themselves is inconsis-
clusion and human dignity, it can easily tent with their past and current behavi-
lead to a struggle for these ideas every- or toward the country's Negro citizens.
where. And it is the virtues that must and will
win the battle with selfishness : " [W]e
JLhe Emancipation Proclamation was refuse to believe that the bank of justice
signed in 1863. One hundred years later, is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that
its promise was not fulfilled. Martin there are insufficient funds in the great
Luther King's great "I Have a Dream" vaults of opportunity of this nation."
speech, delivered in Washington, D.C., Throughout the speech, King sounds
on August 28, 1963, is another of the a note of urgency : the "sweltering sum-
most formative documents of American mer of the Negro's legitimate discon-
education : all young Americans have tent" means that there will be no peace
heard it thousands of times, in King's in America until justice is done. But he

88 Dœdalus Summer 2008

This content downloaded from 132.248.9.8 on Fri, 01 Mar 2019 00:32:19 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 Toward
also cultivates in his followers a puri- New York are now not just mountains ;
a globally
fied patriotism : they must, in Gandhi- they are sites of freedom. Meanwhile, sensitive
an fashion, attain moral superiority by the body of the nation is being personi- patriotism
forgoing violent deeds. Like Gandhi, fied in a sensuous, indeed sexy, way: the
he makes nonviolence seem "majestic," "heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylva-
and violence sordid. ("Again and again, nia," the "curvaceous slopes of Califor-
we must rise to the majestic heights of nia." Thus the invitations to disgust so
meeting physical force with soul force.") ubiquitous in malign patriotism are re-
And he also, like Lincoln, appeals to placed by an embrace of the sensuous
trust between the races, reminding his reminiscent of Walt Whitman.
followers that many white people are But also : the end of the Civil War is
present and have joined the struggle finally at hand, as freedom is asked to
for justice : "We cannot walk alone." By ring from a series of sites in the South.
cultivating hope and trust, along with In a way reminiscent of the Second In-
legitimate anger, he defuses the urge to augural, King expresses malice toward
violence. This is Herderian purified pa- none and charity toward all. The note of
triotism, based on a strong denigration sly humor, as he gets in his dig at Missis-
of violence and a refusal to bow down sippi ("let freedom ring from every hill
before false idols of aggressive masculin- and every molehill of Mississippi") is a
ity.
reminder that bad behavior has not been
The visionary and well-known "I have forgotten; it has, however, been tran-
a dream" section of the speech is cen- scended in a surge of joy whose object is
tral to its construction of an image of a the purified patriotic nation.
morally decent nation, in which all may Like Lincoln's speech, King's ends
join together on terms of equality. But on a global note : the victory of integra-
then, immediately following upon this tion in America will "speed up that day
vision of a new America, King returns when all of God's children" will enjoy
to national memory and national tradi- freedom. Thus purified patriotism melds
tion, by quoting in full the famous song naturally into a striving for global justice
"America," or "My Country Tis of and an inclusive human love.
Thee." Significantly, he now says, "And
if America is to be a great nation, this JUet us now turn to India's founding.
must become true." In other words, the When a new nation is founded, there are
song, which people usually sing compla- no canonical documents or traditions,
cently, as the account of a reality, is it- no memories of long past struggles, that
self prophecy, and its words of freedom will command the agreement and senti-
must be made true by committed action ments of all. Indeed, to this day, a strug-
for justice. gle continues over the proper image of
The next section of the speech can best the nation and its history, as partisans
be described in the language of jazz, as a of the Hindu Right endeavor to charac-
series of riffs on the song, as freedom is terize that history as one of indigenous
asked to ring from a series of regions of Hindu peace and alien domination, first
America. The abstract image of America by Muslims and then by Christians.
is being made concrete and physical by Gandhi and Nehru, setting out to forge
being linked to well-known features of the image of a pluralistic India, united
geography. At the same time, geography by commitment to a truly shared histo-
is being moralized : the mountains of ry of struggle for self-rule and to the na-

Dœdalus Summer 2008 89

This content downloaded from 132.248.9.8 on Fri, 01 Mar 2019 00:32:19 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
Martha C tion's people, had an uphill battle, since citizen as bowing down to the mother-
Nussbaum
on
colonial humiliation bred in many a land, which is then identified with a se-
cosmopoli- strong desire to perform deeds of man- ries of Hindu deities. (Thus the not-too-
tanism
ly aggression. Their struggle involved, subtle suggestion is that India is a Hindu
then, a conception of true manliness and nation, in which Muslims will always
truly strong patriotism that was contro- be outsiders.) This uncritical devotion
verted by a more warlike form of patri- ("Mother, I kiss thy feet") is closely
otism. linked to warlike aggression against the
This struggle is neatly exemplified enemies of Hindu India: "Who hath
by the ongoing dispute over which of said thou are weak in thy lands / When
two songs should be India's national an- the swords flash out in twice seventy
them. The actual national anthem, "Janamillion hands / And seventy millions
Gana Mana," was written (words and voices roar / Thy dreadful name from
music) by poet, novelist, and theorist shore to shore ?"19
of global justice Rabindranath Tagore, a This controversy about the national
determined critic of most existing formsanthem is a debate between the form of
of nationalism.17 Its addressee is an im- patriotism Herder loathed and a form
mortal spirit of righteousness, equiva- that would have been very congenial to
lent to the moral law, and the anthem him. There is a parallel debate about the
describes all Indians as seeking the vic- Indian flag. The existing flag has at its
tory of that moral principle. Like King, center the wheel of law, a symbol associ-
Tagore enumerates all the regions from ated with the Buddhist emperor Asho-
which Indians come together: people ka, who fostered religious toleration. It
from all regions seek the blessings of jus- is, then, a symbol of religious inclusive-
tice. ness, nonviolence, and the supremacy
The Tagore anthem puts beautiful sen- of law. The flag preferred by the Hindu
suous poetry and music underneath in- Right is the saffron banner of the eigh-
clusive and egalitarian moral sentiment. teenth-century Maharashtrian hero
Its notion of victory is a moral, not a Shivaji, who conducted a briefly success-
warlike, notion. Very different is the ful rebellion against Muslim rule. It is an
anthem preferred by the Hindu Right, aggressive and exclusionary symbol, a
known as "Bande Mataram," ("Hail symbol that says that Hindus will strike
Motherland"), taken from a novel by back against centuries of humiliation
the nineteenth-century Bengali novelist, and seize power for themselves, subordi-
and early nationalist, Bankimchandra nating others.
Chatterjee.18 This anthem depicts the
A he world has known no more canny
17 See Rabindranath Tagore, Nationalism, lec-
tures delivered in 1917. "Jana Gana Mana" was creator of purified patriotism than Mo-
not written as the national anthem ; it was writ- handas Gandhi. Gandhi wrote copious-
ten much earlier, as Tagore' s form of indirect
protest against the visit of George V to India.
What he was basically doing is to state that In- his 1916 novel Ghare Eaire, or The Home and the
dia's diverse citizens owe their ultimately loy- World. Its hero, who favors an inclusive con-
alty not to the colonial ruler, but to the moral ception of citizenship based upon justice, de-
law. I discuss the anthem's history in the intro- clares himself unable to understand the spirit
duction to The Clash. of "Bande Mataram."

18 Chatterjee is one of the targets of Tagore' s 19 I cite the well-known translation by na-
mordant critique of warlike nationalism, in tionalist philosopher Sri Aurobindo.

90 Dœdalus Summer 2008

This content downloaded from 132.248.9.8 on Fri, 01 Mar 2019 00:32:19 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
ly, but his success in forging a purified plish. His half-naked persona, draped Toward
a globally
patriotism for the new nation, a vast only in a loincloth and propped up by sensitive
majority of whose inhabitants could not a walking stick, etched itself indelibly patriotism
read and write, owes little to his writ- into the mind of the nation, and the
ings. What Gandhi brilliantly did was to world.
make his own body a living symbol of a Gandhi constructed purified patriot-
(purified conception of the) nation. This ism above all through his theater of civil
self-fashioning expressed his idea that resistance. Both supremely moral and
the essential site of national struggle is strategic, Gandhi knew that when the
inside each person, a struggle to conquer eyes of the world were on India, digni-
greed and anxious desires for domina- fied nonviolent behavior both seemed
tion of others. and was strong and self-governing, and
Gandhi did not fashion himself in a that British thuggishness seemed and
vacuum : he relied heavily on tradition- was puny and ugly by contrast. In the
al Hindu images of asceticism, and he process, he made both his followers and
therefore had to be very careful lest his countless others see manliness in a new
image of the nation seem Hindu in an way : the body that stood with dignity,
exclusionary way. He took care to put taking blows, looked strong and proud.
Muslims in central positions in his free- The body that kept dishing out the blows
dom movement, and to turn to them at looked utterly at sea, hopelessly weak,
what we might call key ritual moments. not able to touch what it was trying to
His famous fast unto death in 1947, for control.
example, was broken when he turned to Gandhian patriotism asked a lot of
Maulana Azad, a Muslim cleric and Con- people. It asked the rich to live in soli-
gress Party leader, asking him for some darity with the poor and to make huge
orange juice and some bread. He thus sacrifices of personal comfort. It asked
broke with traditional Hindu ideas of all men to adopt a new type of nonvio-
purity, which were exclusionary along lent manliness that entailed a great deal
lines of both caste and religion. Wield- of sacrifice, since revenge is pleasant.
ing the enormous power of traditional Only the use of symbols, Gandhi repeat-
asceticism, he diverted it to an utterly edly said, could succeed in making peo-
new cause. ple willing to take on these difficult
At the same time, Gandhitasks. constructed
Fortunately, he was a brilliant
his body as a symbol of unity forger of symbols,
across lines symbols that moved
of wealth and caste. If one examines the because they were old and yet included
change in his physical appearance be- because they were utterly new. He was
tween the early days in South Africa and also a brilliant wielder of humor, who
the height of his influence in India, one found ways to include through a kind of
sees a deliberately cultivated solidarity loving childlike play. Thus, a common
with the lowest and poorest, into which reaction to meeting him was to be sur-
the force of his moral authority also led prised that he was not forbiddingly aus-
the elites around him. To see an elite tere or saintly, but puckish and delight-
Kashmiri Brahmin such as Jawaharlal ful.

Nehru spinning his own thread, or mar- Because Gandhi was so charismatic,
rying his daughter Indira in a homespun his crusade on behalf of purified patriot-
sari, is to see the magnitude of the trans- ism temporarily disabled the struggle
formation Gandhi was able to accom- of the Hindu Right on behalf of exclu -

Dœdalus Summer 2008 91

This content downloaded from 132.248.9.8 on Fri, 01 Mar 2019 00:32:19 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
Martha C.
sionary patriotism. Gandhi's assassin, fering - not only in India, but every-
Nussbaum
Nathuram Godse, justified the assassina- where : "And so we have to labour and
on

cosmopoli- tion for posterity in the name of a (cor- to work, and to work hard, to give reali-
tanism
rect) love of country. Godse remains a ty to our dreams. Those dreams are for
hero for the Hindu Right, not least for India, but they are also for the world, for
the Gujarati Hindus who, in December all the nations and peoples are too close-
2007, reelected by a large margin as chief ly knit together today for any one of
minister Narendra Modi, a leader whose them to imagine that it can live apart."
complicity in the killings of innocent
Muslims during riots in 2002 has now Unfortunately, where patriotism is
been proven beyond doubt.20 concerned, both India and the United
Gandhi's version of patriotism, how- States have recently taken a turn from
ever, is the one that won out at the the purified toward the malign. In to-
founding, enshrined in India's constitu- day's India, patriotism shows her Janus-
tion and in the founding principles laid faced nature. The Hindu Right, building
down in Jawaharlal Nehru's famous on sentiments of ethnic purity, has cre-
"tryst with destiny" speech on the night ated a climate of violence and fear for
of India's independence, yet another minorities, especially Muslims. Al-
example of the public construction of a though the Gandhi-Nehru vision in
purified patriotism of inclusiveness and some ways prevailed in the 2004 elec-
equality. Imagining Indian citizens not tions, it is hanging on by its teeth, and
as aggressive warriors, but as mothers still faces strong opposition from the
laboring to bring forth a new and just malign patriotism of "Bande Mataram,"
nation ("Before the birth of freedom, we egged on substantially by nonresident
have endured all the pains of labor, and Indians in the United States, who made
our hearts are heavy with the memory a large financial and emotional contri-
of this sorrow"), Nehru drew a map that bution to Narendra Modi's recent vic-
linked proper patriotism to a universal tory.
commitment to justice and the eradica- Meanwhile, a new technological mid-
tion of poverty and misery: " [A] s long dle class focuses on the patriotism of na-
as there are tears and suffering, so long tional enrichment, repudiating the Neh-
our work will not be over. " ruvian ideas of striving and of solidarity
For the popular idea of an aggressive with the poor. The Congress Party has
warlike India, Nehru then substitutes tied itself into knots trying not to alien-
the idea of an India at work, character- ate these voters, and this has meant that
ized by incessant labor and striving to- only Sonia Gandhi continues to speak
ward the goal of eradicating human suf- out resolutely in favor of sacrifice and
against a patriotism that divides. On this
20 On the evidence that led to a denial to account she is repeatedly attacked for
Modi of a visa to enter the United States, see her allegedly Italian' ideas. (Her Italian
Nussbaum, The Clash Within, chap. 1 ; since birth is a trope used to undermine her
that time, interviews by the investigative mag- claim to represent the nation.) Every
azine Tehelka, conducted with hidden camera,
day, in the weeks leading up to the Gu-
have given even more overwhelming evidence
of his guilt ; see the special issue of Tehelka, jarat state elections, I received e-mail
"The Truth : Gujarat 2002, In the Words of thedenouncing her, from a group that calls
itself "Indian media bias." Titles such
Men Who Did It," Tehelka 4 (43) (November 3,
2007). as "Is Sonia Losing Her Marbles?" and

92 Dœdalus Summer 2008

This content downloaded from 132.248.9.8 on Fri, 01 Mar 2019 00:32:19 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
"It is not Muslims, It is Islam, stupid ! " draw on symbol and rhetoric, emotional Toward
a globally
show a malign exclusionary patriotism memory and history - as Lincoln, King, sensitive
making its way, through mockery of Gandhi, and Nehru all successfully did. patriotism
ideals of peace and demonization of the This is all the more true when a nation
different. pursues not only internal justice but the
As for the United States, a politics of goal of global justice as well. If people
fear has convinced many Americans that interested in economic equality, justice
they need to curb civil liberties in the for minorities, and global justice eschew
name of a never-ending 'war on terror,' symbol and rhetoric, fearing all appeals
while politicians increasingly help them- to emotion and imagination as inherent-
selves to a language that demonizes Is- ly dangerous and irrational, the Right
lam and Muslims ('Islamofascism,' 'war will monopolize these forces, to the det-
against Islamic terrorism'). At the same riment of democracy.
time, political actors from Antonin Sca-
lia to Mike Huckabee rally around an ex-
clusionary vision of America, with Sca-
lia holding, with Mitt Romney, that we
should prefer the monotheistic religions
and disfavor other religions and nonre-
ligion, and Huckabee going so far as to
assert that the United States is a Chris-
tian nation. Acute fear has typically led
Americans to characterize the nation in
narrow and exclusionary terms. As with
Congress Party members in India, Dem-
ocrats in the United States are not stand-
ing up for the Hindus, Buddhists, agnos-
tics, and atheists whom the rhetoric of
the Right invites us to consider second-
class citizens. Nobody dares to alienate
the powerful evangelical movement by
pointing to the way in which current
Republican rhetoric violates an idea of
equal standing and fair play that lies
deep in the history of the nation. The de-
monization of illegal immigrants is yet
another ugly part of this politics of anxi-
ety.
Obviously, then, patriotism in and of
itself is not a good thing; often indeed it
is a very bad thing. It might, then, seem
perverse of me, at such a time, even to
mention the idea of patriotism.
What I have argued, however, is that
a nation that pursues goals that require
sacrifice of self-interest needs to be able
to appeal to patriotism, in ways that

Dœdalus Summer 2008 93

This content downloaded from 132.248.9.8 on Fri, 01 Mar 2019 00:32:19 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms