The political debates and arguments which surround questions of ethnicity, race and cultural difference have caused a crisis in the idea of the nation as a community. For the critics and advocates of national identity and cultural difference, multiculturalism has often been a specifically national debate. Multicultural States challenges the national frames of reference of these debates by investigating contemporary theories, policies and practices of cultural pluralism across eight countries with historical links in British colonialism: the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, South Africa, Ireland and Britain. Written as history, theory, autobiography and political polemic, Multicultural States combines general theoretical discussions of the principles of cultural pluralism, nationalism, and minority identities with informative studies of specific local histories and political conflicts.
Seeking to identify common problems and precepts in representing cultural differences in the postcolonial era, the contributors discuss such issues as political versus cultural constructions of nationhood in the USA and Australia; communalism and colonialism in India; Irish sectarianism and identity politics; ethnic nationalism in post-apartheid South Africa; British multiculturalism as a heritage industry; multicultural law and education in Canada and New Zealand; refugees, migrancy and identity in a global cultural economy. Ien Ang, David Attwell, Homi K. Bhabha, Abena P. A. Busia, Gargi Bhattacharyya, Dipesh Chakrabarty, Terry Eagleton, John Frow, Henry A. Giroux, Ihab Hassan, Smaro Kamboureli, Maria Koundoura, Beryl
