Imagined Communities
Book by Benedict AndersonWikipedia
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Search complete. 7 mentions across 7 episodes found for "Imagined Communities".
Sep 19, 2026
Matthew Raphael JohnsonGUEST
Hobsbawm, of course, is Jewish.
Matthew Raphael JohnsonGUEST
The book, uh, Benedict Anderson's, um, Imagined Communities became very famous, uh, mostly about Indonesia, but, but he, you know, it has full, uh, im- applications everywhere else.
Matthew Raphael JohnsonGUEST
Nationalism is, in academia, is always considered a myth in the sense that it's largely in people's imagination, you know, poets and writers, and, um, but doesn't have any objective reality.
Matthew Raphael JohnsonGUEST
That's what myth means in this case.
Matthew Raphael JohnsonGUEST
Hobsbawm, of course, is Jewish.
Matthew Raphael JohnsonGUEST
The book Benedict Anderson's Imagined Communities became very famous.
Matthew Raphael JohnsonGUEST
Mostly about Indonesia, but it has full implications everywhere else.
Matthew Raphael JohnsonGUEST
Nationalism in academia is always considered a myth in the sense that it's largely in people's imagination, you know, poets and writers, but doesn't have any objective reality.
Adam ToozeHOST
And the central idea was that the more history speeds up, the more we should expect this kind of move.
Adam ToozeHOST
And so coming out of that generation that was deeply influenced by that phase of nationalism, but also Benedict Anderson, Perry Anderson's brother, who wrote this extraordinary book called Imagine Communities.
Adam ToozeHOST
That's my way of understanding Xi Jinping as well.
Adam ToozeHOST
Xi Jinping is self-evidently, this is the most obviously Hobsbawmian thing you could possibly do.
Matthew Raphael JohnsonGUEST
Hobsbawm, of course, is Jewish.
Matthew Raphael JohnsonGUEST
The book Benedict Anderson's Imagined Communities became very famous, mostly about Indonesia, but it has full implications everywhere else.
Matthew Raphael JohnsonGUEST
Nationalism is, in academia, is always considered a myth in the sense that it's largely in people's imagination, you know, poets and writers, but doesn't have any objective reality.
Matthew Raphael JohnsonGUEST
That's what myth means in this case.
Radhika DesaiHOST
The case against Stalin, for example, was built centrally on the allegation that he settled for socialism in one country when in fact he should have devoted himself to some kind of socialist internationalism.
Radhika DesaiHOST
More recently, when condemnations of nationalism are a little more difficult, given the clearly progressive role of anticolonial movements for national independence, Benedict Anderson began his, and I have to say, undeservedly famous 1983 work on nationalism, Imagine Communities.
Radhika DesaiHOST
by pitting these two against one another.
Radhika DesaiHOST
But let me just say that in one review of this book, I showed how what is considered to be its original contribution is neither in the book and in fact originated elsewhere, and how this particular book provided a particularly retrograde, culturalist, anthropological understanding of nationalism, which, notwithstanding some interesting historical facts discussed in it, was also proven quite unhistorical.
Spencer CaseGUEST
There was one school, the modernist school, of whom I think Benedict Anderson is the most famous, maybe the most famous.
Spencer CaseGUEST
Very interesting book, by the way, Imagine Communities, which the publisher alleges it's actually the most cited book in the social sciences ever.
Spencer CaseGUEST
Possibly, yeah.
Spencer CaseGUEST
Russo claims it, yeah.
Nick ShepleyHOST
Which is just a cleverer way of saying what I was saying previously.
Nick ShepleyHOST
A great book, as ever, is Benedict Anderson's book, Imagine Communities, where it is the great work on nationalism, national identities, and the formation of nation states.
Nick ShepleyHOST
And it does explore...
Nick ShepleyHOST
the relationship between the development of national armies and the development of national identity.