Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism [Paperback]

The world-famous work on the origins and development of nationalism

The full magnitude of Benedict Anderson’s intellectual achievement is still being appreciated and debated.Imagined Communitiesremains the most influential book on the origins of nationalism, filling the vacuum that previously existed in the traditions of Western thought. Cited more often than any other single English-language work in the human sciences, it is read around the world in more than thirty translations.

Written with exemplary clarity, this illuminating study traces the emergence of community as an idea to South America, rather than to nineteenth-century Europe. Later, this sense of belonging was formed and reformulated at every level, from high politics to popular culture, through print, literature, maps and museums. Following the rise and conflict of nations and the decline of empires, Anderson draws on examples from South East Asia, Latin America and Europe’s recent past to show how nationalism shaped the modern world.“One of the greatest … deserves still to be central to our thinking about the world.”
—T. J. Clark,London Review of Books

“Anderson’s work stands as an inspiration not only to his students, his readers, and all those whose lives have been affected by his work, but also to all those who reject the false choice between politics and scholar¬ship, and who seek to live accordingly.”
—Nation

“Anderson transformed the study of nationalism … and was renowned not only for his theoretical contributions but also for his detailed examinations of language and power in Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines.”
—New York Times

“Far and away the most influential study of nationalism … As well-versed in novels and poetry as he was in scholarship, Anderson was an eloquent advocate for globallƒ˝