Benedict Anderson (1983) Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origins and Spread of Nationalism

Perhaps a more bourgeois account (in comparison to Gellner) - he was a communist until the 1960s, then a Marxist
- similar to Gellner but without focus on industrialisation

"[A nation] is an imagined political community and imagined as both inherently limited and sovereign"
- imagined in the sense that no one member knows all or has even interacted with most other members, yet they will use 'we' when speaking of the "community" to which they believe they belong; imagination is flexible (over time sub-groups included and excluded change over time, e.g. suspect terrorist organisations)
- other imagined communities: class and caste system, professions (share jargon, goals)
- limited membership - political, physical, legal/bureaucratic borders..
- community implies sharing of sentiment and ideology
- French citizens swear allegiance to France, so a crime committed against the president wouldn't be regarded as treason as he does not embody 'France' but is merely a political figure
- religious formulation: tomb of unknown soldiers, anonymity symbolises the act and people en masse
- print capitalism - by 18th C mass printing productions (books and newspapers); for success, an audience is demanded, so writings required to be in national language, not local dialects; accessibility
-- with print becoming more affordable and literacy increasing, the language of the ruling class becomes the least viable for communicating with the populace; newspapers provide current news; however idioms cannot be translated

Nationalism born in the colonies
- Americans paid taxes to the English but it didn't bring them any benefits - solidarity from mass outrage; revolts against the aristocracy
- mentions Islamic community but does not often discuss it as it is an exception to the rule? (classical Arabic is still used, unlike Latin which died with the rise of print capitalism)

Creole nationalism
- solidarity of the indigenous against the empire, local nationalism, colonies with a sense of identity separate to empire
-- Australian aborigines create a "nation" in rejection of colonialism as a Western concept
-- no taxation without representation - Boston Tea Party
- outrage then gets exported to the countries of the ruling powers
- rulers must acknowledge and seem to adhere to the peoples, official nationalism, ruling class must also take to nationalism of the majority - Saxe-Coburg to become Windsor

Colonial nationalism
- make a standard language - e.g. Malay/Bahasa
- transport, infrastructure
- army
- judiciary
- standardised measures
- census and maps
- museums showcase the people's history

Religious formulation of nationalism, cont'd
- nationalism as a secular religion
- national community predated by religion
- nation's set of beliefs shared
- no worship but structures founded on religion
-- standing to show respect for the position of monarch

Ascription and self-ascription