Nation: Real or Imagined? The Warwick Debates on Nationalism, The
Author(s)
Gellner, Ernest; Smith, Anthony D.
Abstract
Presented here is a debate between Ernest Gellner and his protege Anthony Smith over the concept of nationalism. Smith argues that nationalism is a “primordial” state, that is that people have exhibited some form of nationalism since they first became aware of group identity. Smith argues that modern manifestations of nationalism may be historically determined, but just as food preferences are a cultural manifestation of a biological need, so are these modern nationalism a particular arrangement of a socio-cultural necessity. Ernest Gellner refutes this, purporting to show that nationalism is a relatively modern concept that exists independently of the majority of human history. To Gellner, nationalism is a construction of an evolving human culture that interacted in complex and unique ways with the changing technological and economic realities of the last 300 years to usher in values and circumstances never before encountered in human history.
