Nations and Nationalism: Second Edition (New Perspectives on the Past) - Softcover

Gellner, Ernest

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0801475007 ISBN 13: 9780801475009

Publisher: Cornell University Press, 2009

Synopsis

First published in 1983, Nations and Nationalism remains one of the most influential explanations of the emergence of nationalism ever written. This updated edition of Ernest Gellner's now-canonical work includes a new introductory essay from John Breuilly, tracing the way the field has evolved over the past two decades, and a bibliography of important work on nationalism since 1983.

About this title

Review:

"Brilliant, provocative... a great book."

--New Statesman

"Periodically, an important book emerges that makes us, through the uniqueness of its theory, perceive history as we have not seen it before. Ernest Gellner has written such a volume. Students of nationalism will have to come to grips with his interpretation of the causes for the emergence of nationalism, since he has declared that most of the previous explanations are largely mythical."

--American Historical Review

"A better explanation than anyone has yet offered of why nationalism is such a prominent principle of political legitimacy today. This is a terse and forceful work... the product of great intellectual energy and an impressive range of knowledge."

--Times Literary Supplement

"An important book... It is a new starting line from which all subsequent discussions of nationalism will have to begin."

--New Society

From the Back Cover:

Ernest Gellner s Nations and Nationalism (1983) provides one of the most powerful and original interpretations of 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 of Nations and Nationalism, John Breuilly, Professor of Nationalism and Ethnicity at the London School of Economics and Political Science, provides a substantial introduction, analysing 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 also been updated.

Second Edition not available from Wiley–Blackwell in North America.

About this edition

• Publisher: Cornell University Press
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0801475007
• ISBN 13: 9780801475009
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 208