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National Identity

Anthony D. Smith

Nationalism studies

It is a central text in nationalism studies and the ethnosymbolist account of national identity.

Synopsis

A study of how nations form, arguing that modern national identities draw on deep ethnic and cultural roots rather than pure invention.

Core passage idea

Paraphrase · Modern copyrighted work

Modern nations are built on pre-existing ethnic ties, myths, memories, and symbols, not merely conjured by industrial states.

It positions national identity between purely modern construction and ancient primordial bonds.

To avoid a bubble

Pair with Imagined Communities.

Reading note

Read it within the scholarly debate between modernist and ethnosymbolist theories of the nation.

Best paired with

Imagined Communities

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