Nations and nationalism /
Ernest Gellner ; introduction by John Breuilly.
- 2nd ed.
- Malden, etc. : Blackwell Publishing, 2006.
- liii, 152 p. ; 23 cm.
- New perspectives on the past .
Includes index.
Pt. 1. Definitions. State ; The nation -- Pt. 2. Culture in agrarian society. Power and culture in the agro-literate polity ; Culture ; The State in the agrarian society ; The varieties of agrarian rulers -- Pt. 3. Industrial society. The society of perpetual growth ; Social Genetics ; The age of universal high culture -- Pt. 4. The transition to the Age of Nationalism. A note on the weakness of nationalism ; Wild and garden cultures -- Pt. 5. What is a nation? The course of true nationalism never did run smooth -- Pt. 6. Social entropy and equality in industrial society. Obstacles to entropy ; Fissures and barriers ; A diversity of focus -- Pt. 7. A typology of nationalisms. The varieties of nationalist experience ; Diaspora nationalism -- Pt. 8. The future of nationalism. Industrial culture - one or many? -- Pt. 9. Nationalism and ideology. Who is the Nuremberg? ; One nation, one state -- Pt. 10. Conclusion. What is not being said ; Summary.
Ernest Gellner's Nations and Nationalism provides one of the most powerful and original interpretations of the modern nationalism. Drawing upon a range of disciplines, including philosophy, anthropology, sociology, politics and history, Gellner argues that nationalism is an inescapable consequence of modernity.
For this new edition, John Breuilly provides a substantial introduction, analyzing Gellner's arguments and tracing and evaluating the ways in which the field has changed over the past two decades. Suggestions for further reading have been updated.