Is blood thicker than water?

From James M. McPherson, here is a brilliant and passionate examination of nationalism in today's world and yesterday's. McPherson focuses on the current crisis in Canada ignited by Quebec's bid for independence and draws startling parallels between that stalemate and the schism between North and South that launched the American Civil War.

From the former Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia to Rwanda and Burundi, nationalism, both ethnic and civic, remains one of the most dangerous and inflammatory of human sentiments. McPherson persuasively demonstrates that an understanding of the past can help us see the present more clearly.