Imagined Communities

by Benedict Anderson

Book Reviews

  • @aeyakovenko 🙂I like cartoons too, but here are some real-life references: 1) Der Judenstaat: https://t.co/nXeNTPuJdY 2) Imagined Communities: https://t.co/tJPvXlCutF 3) Invisible Countries: https://t.co/Za1Ty2DUQZ 4) Communistic Societies of the United States: https://t.co/n0IwY2djGn https://t.co/U2IvqSIZY0Link to Tweet
  • @VinodSreeharsha @amitshetty This is a big topic, but I think it's worth noting that the nation-state (as we understand it today) was an invention of the Enlightenment and made possible by literacy and the printing press. The classic book here is Anderson's 'Imagined Communities'. https://t.co/H3ZeYI5WVmLink to Tweet
  • Some of the most grievously overlooked history in the "how was the modern world invented?" genre is the invention of nation-states (that's right, they're a novel invention), and how that was a necessary and coterminous step with liberal democracy. https://t.co/5zYOdXDejCLink to Tweet

About Book

The defining, best-selling book on the history, origins and development of nationalism What are the imagined communities that compel men to kill or to die for an idea of a nation? This notion of nationhood had its origins in the founding of the Americas, but was then adopted and transformed by populist movements in nineteenth-century Europe. It became the rallying cry for anti-Imperialism as well as the abiding explanation for colonialism. In this scintillating, groundbreaking work of intellectual history Anderson explores how ideas are formed and reformulated at every level, from high politics to popular culture, and the way that they can make people do extraordinary things. In the twenty-first century, these debates on the nature of the nation state are even more urgent. As new nations rise, vying for influence, and old empires decline, we must understand who we are as a community in the face of history, and change.