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Imagined Communities

Benedict Anderson

3 readers recommend it across 3 discussions

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THE WORD OF MOUTH

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Original Hacker News comments, in the readers’ own words.

barry-cotter
> Imagined Communities - the notion of a "nation" is only 300 years old and has no objective basis, only the fact that a group of people agree that it is a thing. The Lombards, Saxons, Franks, Magyars, Mongols and many, many others would disagree. And the Khmer, Mon, Viet and Tai. https://www.gnxp.com/WordPress/2018/03/26/communities-only-e... (https://www.gnxp.com/WordPress/2018/03/26/communities-only-exist-only-in-the-minds-of-europeans/) > Overall it is worth reading Imagined Communities because of its purported cultural significance. But much of it is so garbled and unclear I’m not sure what people are taking from it, aside from the proposition that the modern nation-state was invented in the last few centuries due to modernity. In the end the book is kind of a long tautology. Azar Gat’s Nations is a far superior book.
noahth
Lots of books have influenced me over time, but these are some of the books that have a lot of influence over my current mindset: Godel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid - Douglas Hofstadter Imagined Communities - Benedict Anderson Historical Capitalism - Immanuel Wallerstein Young Man Luther - Erik Erikson