{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.030120481927710843, 'fraction_numerical': 0.001417434443656981, 'mean_word_length': 5.21806167400881, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
RACIALIZED IDENTITIES: RACE AND ACHIEVEMENT AMONG AFRICAN AMERICAN YOUTH

dishwashing, now part of a socialization process that in the early twentieth century was also part of these states’ biopolitical practices. And here we must engage with the book’s more explicit theoretical pronouncements. Because while this is primarily a narrative of the uneven processes through which borders are constructed, including in the banality of the quotidian, the author also sprinkles the narrative with more explicit engagements with the literatures on ethnicity, nationalism and identity. Here is also where the book’s shortcomings lie. While the author successfully and carefully deconstructs the ‘naturalness’ of a border, he appears to take certain terms such as ‘identity’ for granted while repeating what by now seem rather worn accepted pieces of wisdom in nationalism studies (e.g., ‘Nations, thus, obtain identity through bordering processes in which ideas and practices of mutual recognitions and acknowledgments of differences are crucial; they exist, therefore we exist’ [p. 86, emphasis in original]). Indeed, the author has a tendency to write in axioms that seem to need both unpacking and some situating with regard to the literature. For instance, on p. 25, he remarks, ‘In general, natural borders do not exist beyond borders that insist on their own naturalness.’ There seems, however, to be an assumption here that a ‘border’ is and must be one between two nation-states. Moreover, this sentence indicates another problem with the book, which is that despite its theme of borders and bordering, the author engages only superficially with the vast literature that has developed over the past couple of decades dealing with borders, crossings, hybridity, and other related questions. The same may be said for the author’s engagement with the literature on nationalism and identity, which seems stuck with Ernest Gellner, Anthony Smith and Benedict Anderson. One other peculiar feature of the book is the author’s tendency to invent rather quirky terms without explanation. ‘Imagineering’ is one such, as are ‘EUrope,’ ‘EUropean,’ and ‘neglection.’ There is no explanation for why the author feels a need to employ these terms, or how the reader should understand them within the context of the narrative. This book, then, presents a layered discussion of the processes by which borders are formed and bordering is practiced that should be of interest both to students of nationalism and to readers interested in the particular processes of Scandinavian nation-state formation. However, there is a missed opportunity here for a richer theoretical discussion that engages in more depth with the existing and growing literature on borders, walls, crossings, openings and other forms of political and cultural division.