“Many people have complained that Imagined Communities is a difficult book and especially difficult to translate. The accusation is partly true. But a great deal of the difficulty lies not in the realm of ideas, but in its original polemical… — Benedict Anderson Copy Share
“Many people have complained that Imagined Communities is a difficult book and especially difficult to translate. The accusation is partly true. But a great deal of the difficulty lies not in the realm of ideas, but in its original polemical stance and its intended audience: the UK intelligentsia. This is why the book contains so many quotations from and allusions… — Benedict Anderson Copy Share
“The ideal way to start interesting research, at least in my view, is to depart from a problem or question to which you do… — Benedict Anderson Copy Share Image
“All profound changes in consciousness, by their very nature, bring with them characteristic amnesias. Out of such oblivions, in specific historical circumstances, spring narratives… The photograph… is only the most peremptory of a huge modern accumulation of documentary evidence… which simultaneously records a certain apparent continuity and emphasizes its loss from memory. Out of this estrangement comes a conception of… — Benedict Anderson Copy Share
“I propose the following definition of the nation: it is an imagined political community-and imagined as both inherently limited and sovereign. It is imagined… — Benedict Anderson Copy Share Image
“I began to realize something fundamental about field-work: that it is useless to concentrate exclusively on one's 'research project.' One has to be endlessly… — Benedict Anderson Copy Share Image
This fraternity... makes it possible... for so many millions of people, not so much to kill, as willingly to die for such limited imaginings. — Benedict Anderson Copy Share Image
