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Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism
01 Jan 1983-
TL;DR: In this paper, Anderson examines the creation and global spread of the 'imagined communities' of nationality and 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.
Abstract: 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 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.
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TL;DR: The land! don't you feel it? Doesn't it make you want to go out and lift dead Indians tenderly from their graves, to steal from them, as if it must be clinging even to their corpses?
Abstract: The land! don't you feel it? Doesn't it make you want to go out and lift dead Indians tenderly from their graves, to steal from them—as if it must be clinging even to their corpses—some authenticity.
96 citations
TL;DR: In American Politics: The Promise of Disharmony as discussed by the authors, a group of newly naturalized citizens were asked to swear allegiance to no one, only to "a great ideal, to a great body of principles, to the great hope of the human race" (Harrington 1980: 678).
Abstract: IN 1915, President Woodrow Wilson told a group of newly naturalized citizens that they had just sworn allegiance "to no one," only to "a great ideal, to a great body of principles, to a great hope of the human race" (Harrington 1980: 678). The view of American citizenship Wilson thus expressed has a distinguished historic lineage, recently reaffirmed by Samuel P. Huntington. In American Politics: The Promise of Disharmony, he maintains that for most nations, "national identity is the product of a long process of historical evolution involving common ancestors, common experiences, common ethnic background, common language, common culture, and usually common religion."' But citing an impressive list of authorities, Huntington argues that the United States is different. American civic identity has been based on "political ideas," on shared allegiance to the "American Creed" of liberal democracy (Huntington 1981: 23). Huntington, like most of his authorities, also implies that this is more or less the way it should be.2 He believes that whenever the United States becomes severely divided, the nation's liberal democratic ideals serve to restore unity more inclusively than a focus on common ancestors, language, or religion would permit (1981: 230-31). Many past and present critics of liberalism agree with Huntington that American political culture is overwhelmingly liberal, but they dispute his normative judgment. They contend that a public philosophy and public law which strive to rest national political identity simply on acceptance of liberal principles reflect a thin, one-sided conception of the human personality. Liberal pol-
96 citations
TL;DR: The authors analyzes the distinct ways in which public walls of silence continue to surround the absence of labor rights and benefits for foreign female domestic workers in the receiving country of the United States.
Abstract: This article analyzes the distinct ways in which public walls of silence continue to surround the absence of labor rights and benefits for foreign female domestic workers in the receiving country o...
96 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a systematic examination of horizontal inequalities, that arise from the differential access members of different ethnic groups have to lucrative political, economic and social resources, will provide insights into the often ne
Abstract: In this article it is argued that, although the study of ethnicity in Nigeria bears the imprint of almost all the different perspectives that have been deployed towards the study of ethnicity; perspectives that privilege the role of the state and critical elites in ethnic mobilization have dominated the literature Apart from the tenuous explanation of false consciousness, a lot remains to be known about why, when and how followers enlist (or do not enlist) in ethnic conflicts Moreover, analysts have paid more attention to inter-ethnic than intra-ethnic conflicts because the cohesion of ethnic groups is often taken for granted The literature is also very thin on the phenomenon of inter-ethnic accommodation and co-operation It is suggested in this paper that a systematic examination of horizontal inequalities, that is, inequalities that arise from the differential access members of different ethnic groups have to lucrative political, economic and social resources, will provide insights into the often ne
96 citations