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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

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. In 1948, Hannah Arendt made a similar argument, quoted by Kundnani: 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". The term "Eurowhiteness" was originally coined by Hungarian sociologist József Böröcz, but Kundnani uses the word differently.

Content

In the book, Kundnani defines "Eurowhiteness" as "the ethnic-cultural idea of European identity, centered on the EU". He questions the assumption that the European Union is cosmopolitan in nature. In contrast, he argues that the 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. He also cites evidence that Brexit was supported by many of the United Kingdom's non-white voters, arguing that it could be a step towards making the United Kingdom less Eurocentric. 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.

Reception

Sarah Ganty and Dimitry Vladimirovich Kochenov write that "'Eurowhiteness' is the best available diagnosis of Europe's self-appointed cosmopolitanism"; elsewhere, they write that migration control is "the militant arm of the continent-wide ethno-nationalist ‘eurowhiteness’ project". 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.

In The New Statesman, Marina Wheeler writes that the book pierces various myths about the EU. For example, many pro-Europeans believe it "stands for diversity, inclusion and openness". Instead the removal of internal barriers has only strengthened external ones. A review in Jacobin was entitled: "European identity isn’t an antidote to nationalism". 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. 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. Stefan Auer writes that Kundnani "masterfully exposed" the European Union's internal contradictions.

The book received a roundtable discussion in the Czech Journal of International Relations and other reviews.

Referenecs

1. ^ "Eurowhiteness and the Failures of German Memory: An Interview with Hans Kundnani – JHI Blog". www.jhiblog.org. Retrieved 10 January 2025.
2. ^ "l'Europe qui confond — in Conversation with Hans Kundnani | Review of Democracy". revdem.ceu.edu. 14 September 2023. Retrieved 10 January 2025.
3. The limits of European solidarity. A stinging critique focuses on the EU as a bloc rooted in 'imperial amnesia'. By Charles Emmerson. Citation metadata Author: Charles Emmerson Date: Aug. 26, 2023 From: The Financial Times
4. ^ "Book Forum on Hans Kundnani's Eurowhiteness: Culture, Empire and Race in the European Project". Czech Journal of International Relations. 3 (59): 129–168. 2024. ISSN 2788-2985.
5. Ganty, Sarah; Kochenov, Dimitry Vladimirovich (27 February 2024). "How the EU Death Machine Works". Verfassungsblog. doi:10.59704/2ed9974995567485. Retrieved 10 January 2025.
6. Ganty, Sarah; Ancite-Jepifánova, Aleksandra; Kochenov, Dimitry V. (1 December 2024). "EU Lawlessness Law at the EU-Belarusian Border: Torture and Dehumanisation Excused by 'Instrumentalisation'". Hague Journal on the Rule of Law. 16 (3): 739–774. doi:10.1007/s40803-024-00237-0. ISSN 1876-4053.
7. Melber, Henning (1 September 2024). The Long Shadow of German Colonialism: Amnesia, Denialism and Revisionism. Oxford University Press. p. 12. ISBN 978-0-19-779749-5.
8. The myths that made Europe: Built on imperial amnesia and competing nationalisms, the EU has never been the beacon of inclusion it claims to be. Citation metadata Author: Marina Wheeler Date: Sept. 1, 2023 From: New Statesman(Vol. 152, Issue 5732)
9. Wilkinson, Michael (2023) Book review: European identity isn’t an antidote to nationalism. Jacobin. ISSN 2158-2602
10. "Eurowhiteness: Culture, Empire and Race in the European Project". EU Law Live. Retrieved 10 January 2025.
11. Kiran Klaus Patel, Rezension zu: Kundnani, Hans: Eurowhiteness. Culture, Empire and Race in the European Project. London 2023 , ISBN 9781787389328, in: H-Soz-Kult, 11.01.2024, https://www.hsozkult.de/publicationreview/id/reb-138243.
12. "A polemic against racial prejudice at the heart of Europe". TLS.
13. Morey, Maribel (8 January 2024). "Eurowhiteness: culture, empire and race in the European project". International Affairs. 100 (1): 440–441. doi:10.1093/ia/iiad326.
14. Pelit, Simge (5 June 2024). "Commissioned Book Review: Hans Kundnani, Eurowhiteness: Culture, Empire and Race in the European Project". Political Studies Review. doi:10.1177/14789299241259585.
15. Fernandes, Clinton (22 February 2024). "Clinton Fernandes reviews 'Eurowhiteness: Culture, empire and race in the European project' by Hans Kundnani". Australian Book Review. Retrieved 10 January 2025.
16. "Eurowhiteness: Culture, Empire and Race in the European Project – Challenging the narrative". The Irish Times. Retrieved 10 January 2025.

• 2023 non-fiction books
• Oxford University Press books