{{Short description|2023 non-fiction book by Hans Kundnani}} {{Use dmy dates|date=March 2025}}{{Infobox book | image = Eurowhiteness cover.jpg | author = Hans Kundnani | isbn = 978-1787389328 | website = https://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/eurowhiteness/ | publisher = Hurst Publishers | caption = 2023 cover }}
'''''Eurowhiteness: Culture, Empire and Race in the European Project''''' is a 2023 non-fiction book by Hans Kundnani. In the book, Kundnani questions the perception that the European Union is cosmopolitan in nature; instead, he argues that the ethnic and cultural elements of nationalism are also present in the European project.
==Background== [[File:Hans Kundnani at Web Summit 2019.jpg|thumb|Kundnani speaks at Web Summit 2019]] Hans Kundnani is a British scholar of Indian and Dutch descent. He said that the book was inspired by his family background and by the 2014 book ''Eurafrica'' about the European Union's relations with African countries. Kundnani also quotes a similar argument made by Hannah Arendt in 1948: European federation would "make it only too easy to apply their former nationalism to a larger structure and become as narrowly and chauvinistically European as they were formerly German, Italian, or French".<ref name="jhi">{{cite web |title=Eurowhiteness and the Failures of German Memory: An Interview with Hans Kundnani – JHI Blog |url=https://www.jhiblog.org/2024/07/01/eurowhiteness-and-the-failures-of-german-memory-an-interview-with-hans-kundnani/ |website=www.jhiblog.org |access-date=10 January 2025}}</ref> The term "Eurowhiteness" was originally coined by Hungarian sociologist József Böröcz, though Kundnani applies the word differently.<ref name="ceu" /><ref>{{cite news |title=The limits of European solidarity. A stinging critique focuses on the EU as a bloc rooted in 'imperial amnesia' |url=https://www.ft.com/content/0897e2a8-41a1-4031-9e1c-8dc47c954a21 |first=Charles |last=Emmerson |date=August 26, 2023|newspaper= The Financial Times }}</ref>
==Content== In the book, Kundnani defines "Eurowhiteness" as "the ethnic-cultural idea of European identity, centered on the EU".<ref name="ceu">{{cite web |title=l'Europe qui confond — in Conversation with Hans Kundnani {{!}} Review of Democracy |url=https://revdem.ceu.edu/2023/09/14/leurope-qui-confond-in-conversation-with-hans-kundnani/ |website=revdem.ceu.edu |access-date=10 January 2025 |date=14 September 2023}}</ref> He questions whether the European Union is cosmopolitan in nature. In contrast, he argues that Europeanism, rather like nationalism, is composed of ethnic, cultural, and civic elements in tension with each other—and that the ethnic and cultural dimensions have grown more salient in the years before he published the book.<ref name="jhi"/> He also cites evidence that Brexit was supported by many non-white Britons, arguing that it could be a step towards making the United Kingdom less Eurocentric.<ref name="jhi"/> Unlike other left-wing critiques of the European Union—which are more focused on failure to achieve a social Europe—Kundnani's book takes aim at the goals of European integration itself.<ref name="czech" />
==Reception==
Sarah Ganty and Dimitry Vladimirovich Kochenov write that {{"'}}Eurowhiteness' is the best available diagnosis of Europe's self-appointed cosmopolitanism".<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Ganty |first1=Sarah |last2=Kochenov |first2=Dimitry Vladimirovich |title=How the EU Death Machine Works |url=https://verfassungsblog.de/how-the-eu-death-machine-works/ |website=Verfassungsblog |access-date=10 January 2025 |doi=10.59704/2ed9974995567485 |date=27 February 2024}}</ref> Henning Melber agrees with Kundnani's argument that European perceptions of having learned lessons from the Holocaust have blocked a reckoning with Europe's colonial past.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Melber |first1=Henning |title=The Long Shadow of German Colonialism: Amnesia, Denialism and Revisionism |date=1 September 2024 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-779749-5 |page=12 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jn0aEQAAQBAJ&dq=%22Eurowhiteness%22&pg=PP1 |language=en}}</ref>
In ''The New Statesman'', Marina Wheeler writes that the book "offers plenty to trouble the liberal conscience".<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |last=Wheeler |first=Marina |date=30 August 2023 |title=Europe's race delusions |url=https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/books/book-of-the-day/2023/08/europes-race-delusions |access-date=2025-03-05 |work=The New Statesman |volume=152 |issue=5732}}</ref> For example, Kundnani argues that while many pro-Europeans believe that the EU "stands for diversity, inclusion and openness", the removal of internal barriers has only strengthened external ones.<ref name=":0" /> A review in ''Jacobin'' was titled: "European identity isn't an antidote to nationalism".<ref>Wilkinson, Michael (2023) Book review: European identity isn’t an antidote to nationalism. Jacobin. ISSN 2158-2602</ref> Merijn Chamon criticizes Kundnani for "a one-sided and negative narrative of the EU", but concurs with another reviewer that the book is "a clear, elegantly written polemic" that is worth reading.<ref>{{cite web |title=Eurowhiteness: Culture, Empire and Race in the European Project |url=https://eulawlive.com/library/eurowhiteness-culture-empire-and-race-in-the-european-project/ |website=EU Law Live |access-date=10 January 2025}}</ref> Reviewing the "widely debated book", Kiran Klaus Patel praises Kundnani's extensive research, "new analytical framework and fresh empirical interpretations", although he is not entirely convinced by the latter.<ref>Kiran Klaus Patel, [https://www.hsozkult.de/publicationreview/id/reb-138243 Rezension zu: Kundnani, Hans: Eurowhiteness. Culture, Empire and Race in the European Project.] London 2023 , ISBN 9781787389328, in: H-Soz-Kult, 11.01.2024.</ref> Stefan Auer writes that Kundnani "masterfully exposed" the European Union's internal contradictions.<ref name="czech" />
The book received a roundtable discussion in the ''Czech Journal of International Relations''<ref name=czech>{{cite journal |title=Book Forum on Hans Kundnani's Eurowhiteness: Culture, Empire and Race in the European Project |journal=Czech Journal of International Relations |date=2024 |volume=3 |issue=59 |pages=129–168 |url=https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=1293296 |language=English |issn=2788-2985}}</ref> and other reviews.<ref>{{cite web |title=A polemic against racial prejudice at the heart of Europe |url=https://www.the-tls.co.uk/politics-by-region/european-politics/eurowhiteness-hans-kundnani-book-review-mehreen-khan |website=TLS}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Morey |first1=Maribel |title=Eurowhiteness: culture, empire and race in the European project |journal=International Affairs |date=8 January 2024 |volume=100 |issue=1 |pages=440–441 |doi=10.1093/ia/iiad326}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Pelit |first1=Simge |title=Commissioned Book Review: Hans Kundnani, Eurowhiteness: Culture, Empire and Race in the European Project |journal=Political Studies Review |date=5 June 2024 |volume=23 |pages=NP11–NP12 |doi=10.1177/14789299241259585}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Fernandes |first1=Clinton |title=Clinton Fernandes reviews 'Eurowhiteness: Culture, empire and race in the European project' by Hans Kundnani |url=https://www.australianbookreview.com.au/abr-online/archive/2024/march-2024-no-462/999-march-2024-no-462/12292-clinton-fernandes-reviews-eurowhiteness-culture-empire-and-race-in-the-european-project-by-hans-kundnani |access-date=10 January 2025 |work=Australian Book Review |date=22 February 2024 |language=en-gb}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Eurowhiteness: Culture, Empire and Race in the European Project – Challenging the narrative |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/review/2023/09/09/eurowhiteness-culture-empire-and-race-in-the-european-project-challenging-the-narrative/ |access-date=10 January 2025 |newspaper=The Irish Times |language=en}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
Category:2023 non-fiction books Category:Oxford University Press books Category:Books about Europe Category:Books about nationalism