Amazon.co.uk: Nations and Nationalism (New Perspectives on the Past): Ernest Gellner: Books

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (New Edition) by Benedict Anderson

(2) �7.99

Nations and Nationalism since 1780: Programme, Myth, Reality (Canto) by E. J. Hobsbawm

�13.29

Nationalism: Theory, Ideology, History (Key Concepts) by Anthony D. Smith

(3) �14.24

The Invention of Tradition (Canto) by Eric Hobsbawm

(1) �12.34

Nationalism and Modernism by Anthony Smith

(1) �26.59

› Explore similar items : Books (46)

Customers Viewing This Page May Be Interested in These Sponsored Links (What is this?)

Nations And Nationalism

GetTextbooks.co.uk Search low prices at 101+ bookshops Compare Prices & Save up to 60% !

Product Description

New Statesman
Brilliant, provocative ... a great book.

The Times Literary Supplement
"A better explanation than anyone has yet offered of why nationalism is such a prominent principle of political legitimacy today.

See all Product Description

Inside This Book (Learn More)

First Sentence
Nationalism is primarily a political principle, which holds that the political and the national unit should be congruent. Read the first page

Explore More
Concordance

Customer Reviews

2 Reviews

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

Average Customer Review

(2 customer reviews)

Share your thoughts with other customers:

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

The Bible for the modernist nationalist student!, 2 Oct 2001

By A Customer

A short and fully comprehensive review of the modernist viewpoint on nationalism. It is expressed in a style that is easy to digest and invokes interest within the topic area of nationalism. Exploring Islam and Marxist viewpoints as well as critiquing the primordial approach Gellner succeeds in convincing the reader of the modern birth of the nation, as opposed to its modern day critics. There is a fresh and timeless vibrancy to the text every time a reader picks it up. It is essential reading for any student studying Nationalism.

Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you?

(Report this)

12 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

A good starting point for the study of nationalism, 7 April 2002

By A Customer

Nations and Nationalism is a readable account of the birth and rise of nationalism, but suffers from its mechanistic portrayal of society. Put simply, Gellner sees the rise of cities through industrialisation as creating, ex nihilo, modern nationalsim. The movement away from the agrarian, peasant existance to one of nineteenth-century economism leads Gellner to believe that before industrialisation there was no nationalism, and after it there will be nothing in the future other than nationalism. For an author who chides Marx over his determinist viewpoint, Gellner makes the identical mistake with nationalism as Marx did with materialsim. Read this book because it presents some useful introductory concepts, but be warned that the books I've come across on nationalism (Hobsbawm, Breuilly, Anderson, Gellner, Hastings) all suffer from inadequate explainations. If you seriously want to look for a challenging modern world view, I would suggest starting with either Bourdieu's Logic of Practice or Foucault's Discipline and Punish. Perhaps the latter of the two is best to start with, as the comparison to what is called by most, if not all, contemporary historians as 'nationalsim' compares nicely to what Foucault calls 'surveillance.'

Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you?

(Report this)

› See all 2 customer reviews...

Listmania!

Towards a new social critique: A list by Herbert Snorrason "anarchist historian"

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight

Start a new discussion