Grounds for Difference [Paperback]

Offering fresh perspectives on perennial questions of ethnicity, race, nationalism, and religion, Rogers Brubaker makes manifest the forces that shape the politics of diversity and multiculturalism today. In a lucid and wide-ranging analysis, he contends that three recent developments have altered the stakes and the contours of the politics of difference: the return of inequality as a central public concern, the return of biology as an asserted basis of racial and ethnic difference, and the return of religion as a key terrain of public contestation.

Grounds for Difference is a subtle, original, and comprehensive book. All the hallmarks of Brubakers earlier work, such as the conceptual clarity, the theoretical rigorgrounded in a well-researched and well-informed analysisthe crisp writing style, and the impeccable sociological reasoning are displayed here. There is a wealth of original ideas developed in this book that requires much careful reading and unpacking.
Sinisa Maleaevi, H-Net Reviews

This is an imposing collection that will be another milestone in the literature of ethnicity and nationalism.
Christian Joppke, University of Bern