Mapping the Nation

by Gopal Balakrishnan (Editor), Benedict Anderson (Introduction), Lord Acton (Contribution by), Otto Bauer (Contribution by), John Breuilly (Contribution by)

Overview

In nearly two decades since Samuel P. Huntingdon proposed his influential and troubling ‘clash of civilizations’ thesis, nationalism has only continued to puzzle and frustrate commentators, policy analysts, and political theorists. No consensus exists concerning its identity, genesis, or future. Are we reverting to the petty nationalisms of the nineteenth century or evolving into a globalized, supranational world? Has the nation-state outlived its usefulness and exhausted its progressive and emancipatory role?

Opening with powerful statements by Lord Acton and Otto Bauer—the classic liberal and socialist positions—Mapping the Nation presents a wealth of thought on thisissue: the debate between Ernest Gellner and Miroslav Hroch; Gopal Balakrishnan’s critique of Benedict Anderson’s seminal Imagined Communities; Partha Chatterjeeon the limitations of the Enlightenment approach to nationhood; and contributions from Michael Mann, Eric Hobsbawm, Tom Nairn, and Jürgen Habermas.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781781680520
Publisher:	Verso Books
Publication date:	11/13/2012
Series:	Mappings Series
Sold by:	Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format:	eBook
Pages:	336
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Gopal Balakrishnan is the author of The Enemy: An Intellectual Portrait of Carl Schmitt, and editor of Debating “Empire” and (with Benedict Anderson) Mapping the Nation. A member of the New Left Review editorial board, he teaches Contemporary Theory at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Benedict Anderson is Aaron L. Binenkorp Professor of International Studies Emeritus at Cornell University. He is editor of the journal Indonesia and author of Java in a Time of Revolution, The Spectre of Comparisons: Nationalism, Southeast Asia, and the World and Imagined Communities.

A Fellow of the British Academy and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Eric Hobsbawm is the author of more than twenty books of history, including The Age of Revolution and The Age of Extremes. He lives in London.

Michael Mann is Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles. His major works include the prizewinning series The Sources of Social Power, Volume I: A History of Power from the Beginning to 1760 AD, and Volume II: The Rise of Classes and Nation-States, 1760–1914.

Tom Nairn‘s many books include The Break-up of Britain, Faces of Nationalism, After Britain, and The Enchanted Glass. He writes for, among others, New Left Review and the London Review of Books.

Table of Contents

Introduction Benedict Anderson 1

1 Nationality Lord Acton 17

2 The Nation Otto Bauer 39

3 From National Movement to the Fully-formed Nation: The Nation-building Process in Europe Miroslav Hroch 78

4 The Coming of Nationalism and Its Interpretation: The Myths of Nation and Class Ernest Gellner 98

5 Approaches to Nationalism John Breuilly 146

6 Nationalism and the Historians Anthony D. Smith 175

7 The National Imagination Gopal Balakrishnan 198

8 Whose Imagined Community? Partha Chatterjee 214

9 Whither 'Nation' and 'Nationalism'? Katherine Verdery 226

10 Woman and Nation Sylvia Walby 235

11 Ethnicity and Nationalism in Europe Today Eric J. Hobsbawm 255

12 Internationalism and the Second Coming Tom Nairn 267

13 The European Nation-state - Its Achievements and Its Limits. On the Past and Future of Sovereignty and Citizenship Jürgen Habermas 281

14 Nation-states in Europe and Other Continents: Diversifying, Developing, Not Dying Michael Mann 295

Acknowledgements 317

Index 319

What People are Saying About This

Francis Fukuyama

Representative of serious left-of-center thinking on the subject of nationalism, and of great use as a general introduction to the topic.

Editorial Reviews

Representative of serious left-of-center thinking on the subject of nationalism, and of great use as a general introduction to the topic.”—Francis Fukuyama

From the Publisher

Representative of serious left-of-center thinking on the subject of nationalism, and of great use as a general introduction to the topic.

Francis Fukuyama