![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() In 19, Vietnam invaded Cambodia, and then China invaded Vietnam. In his introduction, Anderson illustrates what is special about nationalism with a case study. But he also turns to the radical differences between nations, both in the eras when they formed and today, to point out the way they depend on history and show how they preserve many of the structures, tendencies, and inequalities inherent to the forms of social and political organization they superseded. To understand the essential features of nations and the remarkable power they seem to hold over their citizens, Anderson points to the continuities among nations that formed in different eras and places, many of which he argues result from countries simply copying one another. Instead, Anderson describes the nation as a cultural construct, with a particular history rooted in the fall of monarchies and empires, as well as specific advancements in literacy, technology, and capitalism. Benedict Anderson’s landmark study of nationalism, Imagined Communities, starts by rejecting the assumption that nations are a natural or inevitable social unit. ![]()
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