Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of NationalismWhat makes people love and die for nations, as well as hate and kill in their name? While many studies have been written on nationalist political movements, the sense of nationality—the personal and cultural feeling of belonging to the nation—has not received proportionate attention. In this widely acclaimed work, Benedict Anderson examines the creation and global spread of the 'imagined communities' of nationality. Anderson explores the processes that created these communities: the territorialisation of religious faiths, the decline of antique kingship, the interaction between capitalism and print, the development of vernacular languages-of-state, and changing conceptions of time. He shows how an originary nationalism born in the Americas was modularly adopted by popular movements in Europe, by the imperialist powers, and by the anti-imperialist resistances in Asia and Africa. This revised edition includes two new chapters, one of which discusses the complex role of the colonialist state's mindset in the development of Third World nationalism, while the other analyses the processes by which all over the world, nations came to imagine themselves as old. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
Cultural Roots | 9 |
The Origins of National Consciousness | 37 |
Creole Pioneers | 47 |
Old Languages New Models | 67 |
Official Nationalism and Imperialism | 83 |
The Last Wave | 113 |
Patriotism and Racism | 141 |
The Angel of History | 155 |
Census Map Museum | 163 |
Memory and Forgetting | 187 |
| 207 | |
| 213 | |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
administrative already American antiquity appeared Asia became become British capitalism census central chapter Chinese Christian civil colonial comparable conception consciousness continuity course created creole cultural developed Dutch dynastic earlier early East educational effect eighteenth century empire English Europe European example existed fact France French German groups hand idea imagined imagined community imperial important independence Indian Indonesian Italy language largely late later Latin less linguistic living Magyar Marxism means military movements nationalist native naturally never newspaper nineteenth century noted numbers official official nationalism original particular perhaps political popular population possible produced realm reason regime religious revolutionary ruled schools sense shows Siam social society Southeast Spanish speak successful territories traditional turn United University vernacular Vietnamese Western young