National identity and globalization : youth, state and society in post-Soviet Eurasia /

Blum (Providence College) looks at three post-Soviet states' efforts to create a national identity through youth socialization. He focuses on Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Russia, and investigates, through literature review and personal interviews, how each state has tried to fashion a postcommunist national identity that limits the impact of cultural globalization, particularly Western influences. Each of these states has, since independence, been headed by an authoritarian leader whose own political socialization was formed and consolidated under communist rule. Indeed, President Nazarbayev headed Kazakhstan (as first secretary of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan) before the USSR collapsed, and current Azerbaijan president Ilham Aliyev is the son of longtime strongman Geidar Aliyev who served as president from 1993-2003 (when he entered the hospital and did not re-emerge). Like Vladimir Putin, former president and current prime minister of Russia, G. Aliyev had a long KGB career. Needless to note, authoritarian regimes including these three have less difficulty in determining and instilling social values than do democracies. Not surprisingly, these states' current regimes are managing to inculcate a national culture in the young, although they of course have not been able to keep out contemporary global (Western) culture. Summing Up: Recommended. Students of all levels. J. S. Zacek Union College (NY)