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 José Rizal for whom “we mortals are like turtles—we have value and are classified according to our shells;” 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 Comparisons 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.' - excerpts from back cover.
Onsite
English
1998
374
9781859841846
1
monograph
Part I: The Long Arc of Nationalism
Nationalism, Identity, and the Logic of Seriality
Replica, Aura, and Late Nationalist Imaginings
Long-Distance Nationalism
Part II: Southeast Asia: Country Studies
A Time of Darkness and a Time of Light
Professional Dreams
Gravel in Jakarta's Shoes
Withdrawal Symptoms
Murder and Progress in Modern Siam
Cacique Democracy in the Philippines
The First Filipino
Hard to Imagine
Part III: Southeast Asia: Comparative Studies
Elections in Southeast Asia
Radicalism after Communism
Sauve Qui Peut
Majorities and Minorities
Part IV: What is Left?
El Malhadado Pais
The Goodness of Nations
The Spectre of Comparisons: Nationalism, Southeast Asia and the World
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