ABSTRACT
Ernest Gellner carried forward many of his ideas years after the publication of Nations and Nationalism. In particular, he responded to critiques by publishing two additional texts. Both Encounters with Nationalism in 1994 and the posthumously published Nationalism added to his basic theory in substantive ways. Gellner's views on Islam raised the ire of the Palestinian American postcolonial theorist. Writing of "Orientalism", Said's argument that in the European colonial imagination the civilizations east of Europe were exotic and uncivilized, with certain implications that endure in many forms of Western culture. Despite the success of Nations and Nationalism, Gellner never established a particular school of thought. Scholars in various fields study nationalism, and Nations and Nationalism takes an interdisciplinary approach to the subject. Although influenced by Gellner's thought, the British anthropologist Alan Macfarlane has argued that Gellner's theory of nationalism fails to provide an adequate account of European civil society and how trust was developed within such societies.
