The Spectre of Comparisons: Nationalism, Southeast Asia, and

The Spectre of Comparisons: Nationalism, Southeast Asia, and the World

â€œâ€˜Come, let us build a Third Kingdom, and in this Third Reich, hey, sisters, you will live happily; hey, brothers, you will live happily; hey, kids, you will live happily; hey, you German patriots, you will see Germany sitting enthroned above all the peoples in this world.â€™ How clever Hitler was, brothers and sisters, in depicting these ideals!â€

Thus the late President Sukarno of Indonesia, an anti-colonial leader, in a public speech while accepting an honorary degree, and viewing Europe and its history through an inverted telescope, as Europeans often regard other parts of the globe. Strange shifts in perspective can take place when Berlin is viewed from Jakarta, or when complex histories of colonial domination strand what counts as the founding work of a national culture in a language its people no longer read. The â€œspectre of comparisonsâ€Â arises as nations stir into self awareness, matching themselves against others, and becoming whole through the exercise of the imagination.

In this series of profound and eloquent essays, Benedict Anderson, best known for his classic book on nationalism, Imagined Communities, explores these effects as they work their way through politics and culture. Spanning broad accounts of the development of nationalism and identity, and detailed studies of Southeast Asia, the book includes pieces on East Timor, where every Indonesian attempt to suppress national feeling has had the opposite effect; on the Philippines, where it is said that some horses eat better than stable-hands; on Thailand, where so much money can be made in elected posts that candidates regularly kill to get them; on the Filipino nationalist and novelist JosÃ© Rizal for whom â€œwe mortals are like turtlesâ€”we have value and are classified according to our shells;â€ and a remarkable essay on Mario Vargas Llosa, detailing the fate of indigenous minorities at the hands of the modern state.

While The Spectre of ComparisonsÂ is an indispensable resource for those interested in Southeast Asia, Anderson also takes up the large issues of the universal grammars of nationalism and ethnicity, the peculiarity of nationalist imagery as replicas without originals, and the mutations of nationalism in an age of mass global migrations and instant electronic communications.
Country USA
Brand Verso
Manufacturer Verso Books
Binding Paperback
ItemPartNumber 1 map
Color Multicolor
ReleaseDate 1998-09-17
UnitCount 1
EANs 9781859841846

Country	USA
Brand	Verso
Manufacturer	Verso Books
Binding	Paperback
ItemPartNumber	1 map
Color	Multicolor
ReleaseDate	1998-09-17
UnitCount	1
EANs	9781859841846

The Spectre of Comparisons: Nationalism, Southeast Asia, and the World

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