Powerful ideas from top nonfiction
Try Blinkist to get the key ideas from 7,000+ bestselling nonfiction titles and podcasts. Listen or read in just 15 minutes.
Start your free trial
Blink 3 of 8 - The 5 AM Club
by Robin Sharma
Listen to the Intro
Imagined Communities summary
Benedict Anderson
Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism
23 mins
Table of Contents
Imagined Communities
Summary of 7 key ideas
Audio & text in the Blinkist app
Key idea 1 of 7
Nationalism isn’t a religion, but it’s closer to religious belief systems than to modern political ideologies.
We enter this world on terms beyond our choosing. Our genetic heritage, parents, and physical abilities are all determined by chance. The only certainty in life is death. These two facts – the contingency of existence and the inescapability of mortality – have always weighed heavily on humans. Attempts to make sense of them are at the heart of most traditional belief systems. Modern styles of thought, by contrast, remain silent on questions that can’t be settled by science, which is why neither liberals nor Marxists have much to say about immortality. Nationalists, however, do.
And that’s the key message here: Nationalism isn’t a religion, but it’s closer to religious belief systems than to modern political ideologies.
Let’s consider cenotaphs, one of the most interesting emblems of nationalism. These are monuments dedicated to nameless soldiers, and it’s this anonymity that gives these ghostly tombs their meaning. Because they commemorate “Unknown Soldiers” who lack an individual identity, they become symbols of something greater. They represent the ultimate sacrifice – dying for one’s country. Cenotaphs seem to suggest that those who give up their lives for something larger than themselves live forever.
In this, nationalism resembles religious worldviews. Faiths like Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam, for example, were able to survive for millennia in dozens of different societies because they tapped into human intuition. These faiths bring hope that there must be a deeper meaning to the seemingly random ebb and flow of life. Whether they call it karma or the afterlife, religions find this meaning by linking the dead, the living, and the unborn into an eternal chain of death and regeneration.
Given this similarity between nationalism and religious thought, it’s not surprising that the former emerged just as the latter was faltering. After being taken for granted for thousands of years, religion lost its self-evident plausibility in eighteenth-century Europe. This was the age of the Enlightenment, an intellectual movement that emphasized human reason rather than religious tradition. The decline of religion certainly didn’t, however, remove the suffering to which it had, in part, been a response.
In fact, this decline left a void at the heart of modern life. Without paradise, existence seemed unbearably arbitrary. Without the prospect of salvation and a life in the hereafter, the imagined community of the nation became more attractive. But before we examine nationalism itself, let’s take a closer look at the cultural systems that lead to it.
Want to see all full key ideas from Imagined Communities?
Key ideas in Imagined Communities
More knowledge in less time
Read or listen
Get the key ideas from nonfiction bestsellers in minutes, not hours.
Find your next read
Get book lists curated by experts and personalized recommendations.
Shortcasts New
We’ve teamed up with podcast creators to bring you key insights from podcasts.
What is Imagined Communities about?
Imagined Communities (1983) is one of the most influential studies of the origins of nationalism. In it, Benedict Anderson asks a question that had long vexed his fellow historians: Why did nations become such a potent source of identity in the modern world? In these blinks, we’ll unravel Anderson’s fascinating answer to this conundrum as we delve into the history of capitalism, the printing press, religious belief systems, and nationalism.
Best quote from Imagined Communities
Nationalism has to be understood by aligning it, not with self-consciously held political ideologies, but with the large cultural systems that preceded it.
—Benedict Anderson
Who should read Imagined Communities?
- History buffs
- Thinkers and theorists who love bold ideas
- Anyone who’s wondered why we live in a world of nation-states
Categories with Imagined Communities
Books like Imagined Communities
People ❤️ Blinkist
Sven O.
It's highly addictive to get core insights on personally relevant topics without repetition or triviality. Added to that the apps ability to suggest kindred interests opens up a foundation of knowledge.
Thi Viet Quynh N.
Great app. Good selection of book summaries you can read or listen to while commuting. Instead of scrolling through your social media news feed, this is a much better way to spend your spare time in my opinion.
Jonathan A.
Life changing. The concept of being able to grasp a book's main point in such a short time truly opens multiple opportunities to grow every area of your life at a faster rate.
Renee D.
Great app. Addicting. Perfect for wait times, morning coffee, evening before bed. Extremely well written, thorough, easy to use.
People also liked
Start growing with Blinkist now
28 Million
Downloads on all platforms
4.7 Stars
Average ratings on iOS and Google Play
91%
Of Blinkist members create a better reading habit*
*Based on survey data from Blinkist customers