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 EAN: 9780860910596 ISBN: 0860910598 Label: Verso Manufacturer: Verso Number Of Pages: 160 Publication Date: 1983 Publisher: Verso Studio: Verso Related Items:
Browse for similar items by category: Click to Display Editorial Review: Product Description: Anderson's essay shows how the European processes of inventing nationalism were transported to the Third World through colonialism and were adapted by subject races in Latin America and Asia. Average Rating:
 Rating:  - A must-readNo need to comment. This is one of the classics and a must for any student of nationalism. Even if you don't agree with Anderson's account on the origins of nationalism, you still have to read it. Rating:  - Insightful but dry.This book is something of a classic of sociology but not a light read. Very briefly, the thesis of "Imagined Communities" is that political nations are the creation of modern communication networks (definition of modern: post-Gutenberg). When one stops to think about it, this insight seems intuitive. After all, how can people relate to other people unless there is first communication among them? In a world in which most people are illiterate and never travel beyond their villages, of course they ... Read More Rating:  - Unreadable GibberishThough some interesting and provocative ideas are presented shedding some light on the idea of the rise of nationalism, this was largely a poorly written book that will not add an iota of understanding to what motivates human behavior. Rating: - An amazing introductionIf you want a scholarly introduction to nationalism and its history, this is an excellent book to start with. Anderson begins with a discussion of how the concept of the nation first came into being, with emphasis on the factors that enabled people to imagine communities beyond their immediate surroundings. He then brings in more abstract concepts such as spatial/temporal relations and its relation to maps and museums... well, you'll have to read the book, since he explains it much better than me. ... Read More Rating: - Thought-provoking but unsatisfyingThis short book/long essay offers some interesting insights on nationalism, but is limited by its Marxist-materialist perspective. Anderson obviously knows his history and his typology of three essential nationalisms (the new republics of the Americas in the late 18th-early 19th centuries, popular national revival movements in 19th-century Europe, and suffocating official nationalisms such as the British and Russian empires) is based on the history of capitalism, the development of printing, mass communication, ... Read More 
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