David’s Reviews > Rescuing History from the Nation: Questioning Narratives of Modern China > Status Update

Rather disappointed in my progress, have literal dozens of books to be read and slogging through this one. Duara makes interesting and well-informed arguments but falls into the usual postcolonial trap of jargon and nap-inducing writing.

Duara vastly overstates Hegel's impact on theories of the nation and its status as a historical subject. If one were to believe the first two chapters, Hegel is in essence personally responsible for the development of national historical theory. Important to Hegelian theory in its original form, yes, but the nation as a historical subject concept existed before him. I don't buy the pinning upon Hegelian "History."