The Kurdish Nationalist Movement: Opportunity, Mobilization and Identity

Extract

The Kurdish Nationalist Movement: Opportunity, Mobilization and Identity. By David Romano. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006. 290p. $75 cloth, $29.99 paper.

When the Ukrainians became independent at the end of 1991, the Kurds succeeded to the title of largest nation on earth without its own independent state. This dubious distinction is not due to any dearth of academic attention since in recent years, there has been an explosion of scholarly books and articles regarding the Kurds. David Romano's new publication is clearly one of the best. The author takes the theoretical analysis of Kurdish ethnic resurgence to a new, higher level, while also placing it in the larger context of ethnic nationalist resurgences throughout the world. No other recent analysis of the Kurds has done this.