Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (New Edition) [Paperback]

What makes people love and die for nations, as well as hate and kill in their name? In this important work, Benedict Anderson focuses a much-needed clear eye on nationalism as cultural artefact, created and transformed through historical processes--a fated and thus pure attachment experienced every day through the connections language forges with a living and dead community.

In selecting the genealogy of "thinking" the nation, Anderson chooses his trajectory well--thankfully reading not only from the social history of Europe, but also from the experiences of its colonies and other states across the globe (the armed conflicts of 1978--79 Indochina provided the immediate impetus for the original 1983 text). It is especially these states which Anderson's later revisions address, with his wise realisation that so-called "official nationalism" in colonised Asia and Africa was not transplanted without intervention from that of the dynastic states of 19th-century Europe. When dealing with such an emotive subject, Anderson thankfully avoids favouring rhetoric over grounded analysis. He thoroughly explains the role of print language in imagining community, particularly with the development of the novel set in a society to which the reader may or may not belong, but can recognise, and the newspaper, which, perhaps replacing morning prayers, is read every day by people who have a sense of their fellow readers' existence.

The power of Imagined Communities ultimately lies in its applied resonances. The force of the argument of an "imagined community" is not only invaluable to sociologists or political economists, but it implicates each of us in compelling notions of identity and belonging whether our imagined community is with a nation or with others who buy, listen to and watch the same cultural products as ourselves. Essential reading for anyone interested in a history of the present. --Fiona Buckland --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

"Anderson's knowlege of a vast range of relevant historical literature is most impressive; his presentation of the gist of it is both masterly and lucid." - New Statesman "Sparkling, readable, densely packed..." - Guardian "A brilliant little book." - Neal Ascherson, The Observer

What 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 a nation - has not received proportionate attention. In this widely acclaimed work, Benedict Anderson examines the creation and function of the "imagined communities" of nationality and the way these communities were in part created by the growth of the nation-state, the interaction between capitalism and printing and the birth of vernacular languages in early modern Europe.

Benedict Anderson is Associate Director of Government and Asian Studies at Cornell University.