Imagined Communities, Benedict Anderson
Imagined Communities, Benedict Anderson
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Imagined Communities
Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism

Author: Benedict Anderson

Narrator: Kevin Foley

Unabridged: 8 hr 9 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 03/05/2012


Synopsis

Imagined Communities, Benedict Anderson's brilliant book on nationalism, forged a new field of study when it first appeared in 1983. Since then it has sold over a quarter of a million copies and is widely considered the most important book on the subject. In this greatly anticipated revised edition, Anderson updates and elaborates on the core question: What makes people live and die for nations, as well as hate and kill in their name?

Anderson examines the creation and global spread of the 'imagined communities' of nationality, and explores the processes that created these communities: the territorialization of religious faiths, the decline of antique kingship, the interaction between capitalism and print, the development of secular languages-of-state, and changing conceptions of time and space. He shows how an originary nationalism born in the Americas was adopted by popular movements in Europe, by imperialist powers, and by the anti-imperialist resistances in Asia and Africa.

In a new afterword, Anderson examines the extraordinary influence of Imagined Communities: he also explores the book's international publication and reception, from its first publication towards the end of the Cold War era to the present day.

About Benedict Anderson

Benedict Anderson is the Aaron L. Binenkorb Professor of International Studies Emeritus at Cornell University. He is the author of Language and Power: Exploring Political Cultures in Indonesia, The Spectre of Comparisons, and Under Three Flags: Anarchism and the Anti-Colonial Imagination.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Kelly on October 21, 2010

UPDATED: Amazing how reading this for a different class brought out a totally different discussion. The last class I read this for was called "Uses of History in International Affairs," and we spent the majority of our time talking about history as an act- history as narrative, history as an agenda,......more

Goodreads review by Murtaza on December 29, 2016

One of my longstanding grievances with the public education system is its approach to geography. The jigsaw of nations most children are taught comprise the world is essentially posited as something timeless and ineffable, while in reality are they all very historically recent not to mention ephemer......more

Goodreads review by Sean on August 30, 2024

Anderson has a good point about how language and the collapse of religious absolutism created nationalism, but he fails on two points. First, his language is haughty and over the top, including references to obscure stuff. I got most of them, but others will be lost. Second, he fails to elaborate on......more

Goodreads review by Roy on April 26, 2016

Boy, am I glad to have finally read this. Imagined Communities is the force behind much of the scholarship in the social sciences I find most interesting. Seeing someone’s name so often in brackets (Anderson, 1983) makes you curious, and Anderson does not disappoint. For me, this is history at its mo......more

Goodreads review by Ross on February 24, 2009

Definitely an 'essential read', but did his style have to be so annoying? "Unjungled," Benedict? "Museumized?" Those aren't words. Not cute, either. Stop with the scare quotes, too, jeez. And would you translate your goddamn lengthy French quotations??? GOD.......more