Představy společenství

This book by an American political scientist and historian, a specialist in the cultures of southeast Asia (Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines) asks the basic question: why, in the times of communist internationalism and the resulting globalization, does nationalism and even gain strength? It is not a merely political or ideological phenomenon or a comeback to glorious history or traditions. It is particularly in south and south-eastern Asia, where national awareness is formed in ethnically quite differentiated units. According to Anderson's theory, a nation is mainly a community formed by imagination, which is developed thanks to modern communication technologies (starting with the printing of books), literary influence (mainly modern novels) and journalism. Unlike religious communities, which are formed in a continual time of "sacred history", time, which has clear meaning and which is set in eternity, a nation rises as "an imagined community" of individuals in "empty" secularized and mechanized time of the modern world. One of this book's main contributions is the fact that it follows the rise of modern nations on the American continent and the influence of these processes on the development of nationalism in Europe.