Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism

Imaginative, facts-based examination of the origins of nationhood. Eloquently written - simultaneously dense but accessible. Cannot recommend enough.

Benedict Anderson's "Imagined Communities" is justifiably a classic of political science and history. Its impact on the study of nationalism - which is arguably the ideology most resistant to academic study - can hardly be measured. Anderson, a specialist in South-East Asian history, lets his scholarly instincts roam across the entire world as he seeks to explain just why it is that nationalism has become so prevalent in the world. What factors have meant that we take pride in someone dying "for our nation", while we don't take the same pride in someone dying "for our political beliefs"? The answer, somewhat surprisingly, begins with a description of the origins and impact of the printing press. Anderson's argument, particularly the section most well-known to his readers, is that the ability of those living in a particular place to read in their own language (as against Latin, Arabic, Sanskrit or Chinese) began this process. It was enhanced, he contends, with the production of newspapers, allowing people to "imagine" themselves as Peruvian or Chilean, rather than as Spanish colonials. Yes, the choices of nation were used advisedly above, as Anderson's second striking conclusion is that nationalism is a new-world (i.e. the Americas) phenomenon. The "Creole" intelligentsia, allowed to progress only so far by their colonial rulers, became the fertile ground necessary for nationalist ideals. Anderson also discusses "official" nationalism in some depth, focusing on Europe and making some quite surprising comments regarding the penetration of the various vernacular languages into their respective empires. This analysis seems a little more forced at times, but the general point remains that a "nation" is essentially a modern and "imagined" community. The revised edition of this work also goes into some detail about the roles of censuses, maps and museums in the creation of nationalism. Using his South-East Asian training, Anderson is able to explain such things as the importance of West Papua to Indonesia, despite the marked cultural differences between most Indonesians and citizens of that province. While this analysis is self-consciously global in scope, Anderson is modest enough to remind the reader that his training is in one region alone. This is a refreshing change from many scholars, who propound theories of global scope based only on observations of a limited series of events. "Imagined Communities" is, as indicated above, a read of considerable intellectual robustness. It is not, however, a read for the casual history-reader. Anderson makes many demands on his readers, not the least of which is to follow his logic which is not always entirely apparent. With that in mind, the book can be recommended to all with an academic interest in history, but with considerable reservations to those without.

Benedict Anderson's Imagined Communities is one of the most important and influential books on the phenomenon of nationalism currently in print. The primary contribution he makes concerns the notion of the development of a community with shared or common cultural media that generate a sense of communal self-awareness or consciousness. Although he uses as his primary example the experience of reading a newspaper (which makes readers conscious of others who share their values, concerns, and experiences, even if they have no direct contact with those people, often over a great distance), the imagined community has broader implications. This book will make you think about how you conceive of the communities you belong to, and how these communities are created and reproduced. Beyond the obvious importance of broadcast media, in modern American culture, the mall, with its ubiquitous chain stores, is an important motor of our imagined American community: you will find the same basic stores, carrying the same basic styles, in every town in America, creating a sense of common tastes and culture. While some may complain that the book is dry and boring, it is a scholarly work intended for an educated audience. It is not a popularization intended for the general public. Nevertheless, if you are up for it, it is more than worthwhile.

Imagined Communities by Benedict Anderson seeks to explain the seeds of what he terms "imagined communities," which are for the most part "nations". It is also a careful chronological account of how these seeds grew into actual policies through the breaking apart of the Latin language, the dissemination of mass-media into new ideas of national history, and ultimately how history and language served to preserve national identity. In the first chapter, "Cultural Roots," Anderson claims that the birth of the imagined community is directly linked to Industrialization and its two byproducts, the novel and the newspaper. The novel and the newspaper first made the public aware of simultaneous experiences that allowed them to conceive of themselves as not alone, but rather an entity that worked together. The concept of time as a linear, progressive notion was another result of Industrialization, and Anderson argues that this "calendrical" way of looking at the past was another important factor in imagined communities as it allows groups of people to think of a historic root in national identity. In the following chapter, "Origins of National Consciousness," Anderson takes his point further by arguing that print-capitalism and capitalism in general sought to benefit from growing literacy among "laypeople." In this way it was self-perpetuating in that it created more of a consuming public that, because of its expansion, began to create and shape a national consciousness of its own. Growing population in general led to the development of new languages from Latin, and the new languages thereby helped shape national consciousness as well. In the fourth chapter, "Creole Pioneers," Anderson explains how colonialism, particularly in respect to the United States of America, also contributed to growing populations who were a mix of the colonized and the colonials. In addition to expanding the public further, these "Creoles" also developed separate understandings of nationalism based on the model those who first came to the colonies. From here, author Benedict Anderson explains how, once established, new colonies such as the Americas "pirated" ideas of modernity and antiquity and used them for their own distinct national purposes. Languages were no longer the basis of national identity, but rather these pirated models gained momentum through administrative and educational institutions. In the chapter "Official Nationalism and Imperialism," Anderson explains how this idea of individual/national antiquity and modernity was adopted as a policy for the first time by various ruling classes: "Such official nationalisms were conservative, not to say reactionary, policies, adapted from the model of the largely spontaneous popular nationalisms that preceded them." (110) In the chapter "The Last Wave," the idea of this centralizing or "Russifying" of schools and administrative facilities is presented as already established within most of the European and coloni

Mr. Anderson does not promise or provide answers. If you're looking for a quick answer to the hard questions your professors are asking, you're in the wrong place - and perhaps the wrong class. What IS presented is a remarkable and thoughtful examination of the rise of nationalism - and more importantly, of the consciousness of nations as constituted in individuals and in communitites. Mr. Anderson examines some of the necessary preconditions to modern conceptualizations of "nation" in a manner that is at once accessible and deeply provocative. An essential read for any student of world politics and for anyone who would aspire to be an informed citizen in the coming decades.

accessible yet thought-provoking reflection on national identity. Of interest to historians, political theorists, cultural studies. A book I keep coming back to in my mind -- so I finally bought a copy