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by: Ernest Gellner  List Price: $16.95 Amazon.com's Price: $14.35 You Save: $2.60 (15%)Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Binding: PaperbackDewey Decimal Number: 320.54 EAN: 9780801492631 ISBN: 0801492637 Label: Cornell University Press Manufacturer: Cornell University Press Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 150 Publication Date: 1983-12 Publisher: Cornell University Press Studio: Cornell University Press Related Items:
Browse for similar items by category: Click to Display Editorial Review: Product Description: From reviews of the first edition: "Brilliant, provocative . . . a great book."--New Statesman "An important book . . . It is a new starting line from which all subsequent discussions of nationalism will have to begin."--New Society "A better explanation than anyone has yet offered of why nationalism is such a prominent principle of political legitimacy today. This is a terse and forceful work . . . the product of great intellectual energy and an impressive range of knowledge."--Times Literary Supplement "Periodically, an important book emerges that makes us, through the uniqueness of its theory, perceive history as we have not seen it before. Ernest Gellner has written such a volume. Students of nationalism will have to come to grips with his interpretation of the causes for the emergence of nationalism, since he has declared that most of the previous explanations are largely mythical."--American Historical Review First published in 1983, Nations and Nationalism remains one of the most influential explanations of the emergence of nationalism ever written. This updated edition of Ernest Gellner's now-canonical work includes a new introductory essay from John Breuilly, tracing the way the field has evolved over the past two decades, and a bibliography of important work on nationalism since 1983. Average Rating:
 Rating:  - The most influential theorist of nationalismStart with Benedict Anderson's "Imagined Communities" to understand the contingency of modern nations, but then read Gellner. This is a master opus and the most elegant treatment of nationalism in print. Rating: - Interesting, super important, but his diction bores the deadFirst, a few words on nationalism itself. Nationalism is important to study because during the 20th century, it has been one of the most despicable forces to ever hit this world and as such, needs to be understood. (And yes, I consider fascism a form of nationalism). The twin founding fathers of nationalism, Hans Kohn and Carleton Hayes, construct the skeleton on which other authors (Gellner, Smith, Hobsbawm, Hutchinson, Breuilly, Armstrong, Anderson, etc.) try to fill in the gaps by ... Read More Rating:  - A classic...but classic isn't necessarily goodAt first I thought this was going to be an enjoyable, positive reading exercise since Chapter 1 was clear and thought provoking. But by the sixth chapter I literally wanted to tear the book to pieces. Gellner's book is considered "a classic" in the literature on nationalism, but I contend that its weaknesses equal or outweigh its contributions. I found Gellner's theory extremely Euro-centric and remarkably exasperating. Moreover, Gellner's style of writing was excessively repetitive, "tedious and ... Read More Rating: - The Siren Call of NationalismA densely-written and concise book, as befitting Gellner's style, which is not usual in English writing. There is for example, a paucity in examples, unlike (say) Benedict Anderson's "The Imagined Community", another modern work on nationalism. As an Irishman, I can see that parts of Gellner's thesis does fit Ireland. I can see how Irish Nationalism developed in the last century from the aspirations of working-class and middle-class townsmen adopting a metropolitan culture, and shifting away ... Read More Rating: - classic modernist account of nationalismTruly one of the most important books ever written about nationalism, this is also one of the few modernist accounts of nationalism that ages well. While this book was published in 1983, it is basically an expanded version of a chapter from Gellner's earlier _Thought and Change_ (1964) with some alterations. However, even 36 years later his thesis is still as strong as ever: nationalism is a result of the transformation from agrarianism to industrialization. I'll try to summarize his thesis briefly. Read More 
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