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This work treats the European political philosophy that has engendered the Nation-State concept -- considered to be the logical evolution of human history as a linear periodization into the Modern State. This Modern State concept is treated as the end of history in liberal democratic theory, in spite of it remaining a European phenomenon. Where it has been imposed beyond the European political culture it has provoked a plague of civil wars and occupations, such as in Palestine. In Europe itself it has also resulted in such features as the Spanish Inquisition, the latter-day Spanish civil war and the fascist dictatorship that followed, as well as the Nazi regime and its Holocaust in alliance with the various fascist allies seeking their own Nation-State. Various attempts have followed in Europe itself to overcome the Nation-State itself by means of the European Union which sought to unite the Nation-States with a federated effort to bring some stability to the economy and life of the region in light of the disastrous wars of the twentieth century. The contradictions of the Nation-State and Federalism become ever more apparent as the EU now descends into economic chaos. This sub-title invites a comparison and a contrast between the Jewish political-culture and the Zionist movement. One may consider political-culture as encompassing Civil Society, history, religious theology and law; comprising a collective consciousness, this historical heritage forms a national identity which is currently oriented into nationalism by the State. The endurance of national identity apart from the State and with the extinction of the State is projected as the basis of an independent Civil Society.

“A powerful challenge to the prevailing constitutional orthodoxy of the right and the left . . . A deeply troubling and absolutely vital book” (Mark Joseph Stern, Slate). In this provocative book, Mary Anne Franks examines the thin line between constitutional fidelity and constitutional fundamentalism. The Cult of the Constitution reveals how deep fundamentalist strains in both conservative and liberal American thought keep the Constitution in the service of white male supremacy. Franks demonstrates how constitutional fundamentalists read the Constitution selectively and self-servingly, thus undermining the integrity of the document as a whole. She goes on to argue that economic and civil libertarianism have merged to produce a deregulatory, “free-market” approach to constitutional rights that achieves fullest expression in the idealization of the Internet. The fetishization of the first and second amendments has blurred the boundaries between conduct and speech and between veneration and violence. But the Constitution itself contains the antidote to fundamentalism. The Cult of the Constitution lays bare the dark, antidemocratic consequences of constitutional fundamentalism and urges readers to take the Constitution seriously, not selectively.