ABSTRACT

In Nations and Nationalism, Ernest Gellner aims to prove that nationalism is a unique phenomenon of the modern world—that is, of the period that began roughly towards the end of the fifteenth century. In the text, Gellner begins with a full explanation of the social, cultural, and economic structures of agrarian societies. Then he undertakes a similar analysis of industrialization. Gellner uses an interdisciplinary and speculative approach to the question of the origins of nationalism. Underlying Gellner's approach is the positivism of sociology—the idea that one may become certain of specific "social facts" by observing social activities. Gellner's contribution to the study of nationalism both reacts to and synthesizes several trends. Gellner disputed the view that nationalism emerged from other ideologies or intellectual trends, as the American historian Carlton Hayes or the British historian Elie Kedourie proposed. Gellner also discusses the Oxford-trained academic John Plamenatz's 1973 essay "Two Types of Nationalism".