Nations and Nationalism

by Gellner, Ernest; Breuilly, John

• ISBN13: 9780801475009
• ISBN10: 0801475007
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-05-15
• Publisher: Cornell Univ Pr

Summary

This thoughtful and penetrating book, addressed to political scientists, sociologists, historians, and anthropologists, interprets nationalism in terms of its social roots, which it locates in industrial social organization. Professor Gellner asserts here that a society's affluence and economic growth depend on innovation, occupational mobility, the effectiveness of the mass media, universal literacy, and an all-embracing educational system based on a shared, standard idiom. These factors, taken together, govern the relationship between culture and the state. Political units that do not conform to the principle, "one state, one culture" feel the strain in the form of nationalistic activity.

Author Biography

Ernest Gellner taught at the LSE from 1949 until 1984, when he became William Wyse Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Cambridge. At the end of his life, in 1995, he was Director of the Centre for the Study of Nationalism, part of the Central European University. A full bibliography of his many publications can be found in this book. John Breuilly is Professor of Nationalism and Ethnicity at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Book publications include Austria, Prussia and Germany 1806-1871 (2002), Nationalismus and moderner Staat. Deutschland and Europa (1999), The Formation of the First German Nation-State, 1800-1871 (1996), and Nationalism and the State (second edition, 1993).

Table of Contents

About the Authors	p. vii
About this Edition	p. viii
Editor's Preface to the First Edition R. I. Moore, Founding Editor	p. ix
Acknowledgements for the First Edition	p. xi
Introduction	p. xiii
Definitions	p. 1
State and Nation	p. 3
The Nation	p. 5
Culture in Agrarian Society	p. 8
Power and Culture in the Agro-literate Polity	p. 9
Culture	p. 11
The State in Agrarian Society	p. 13
The Varieties of Agrarian Rulers	p. 14
Industrial Society	p. 19
The Society of Perpetual Growth	p. 23
Social Genetics	p. 29
The Age of Universal High Culture	p. 34
The Transition to an Age of Nationalism	p. 38
A Note on the Weakness of Nationalism	p. 42
Wild and Garden Cultures	p. 48
What is a Nation?	p. 52
The Course of True Nationalism Never did Run Smooth	p. 57
Social Entropy and Equality in Industrial Society	p. 62
Obstacles to Entropy	p. 63
Fissures and Barriers	p. 72
A Diversity of Focus	p. 73
A Typology of Nationalisms	p. 85
The Varieties of Nationalist Experience	p. 94
Diaspora Nationalism	p. 98
The Future of Nationalism	p. 106
Industrial Culture - One or Many?	p. 110
Nationalism and Ideology	p. 118
Who is for Nuremberg?	p. 125
One Nation, One State	p. 128
Conclusion	p. 131
What is not being Said	p. 131
Summary	p. 133
Select Bibliography	p. 137
Bibliography of Ernest Gellner's Writings on Nationalism	p. 142
Index	p. 148
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