Imagined Communities Terms

Marxism is a political philosophy and social science methodology based on the work of groundbreaking German economist Karl Marx. Marxists analyze history and politics in terms of the economic relationships and conflicts between different social-economic… read analysis of Marxism

According to Marxist thought, the proletariat is the class of workers who lack property and are forced to sell their labor to the bourgeoisie in order to survive, and who comprise the majority of humanity. read analysis of Proletariat

According to Marxist theory, the bourgeoisie is the minority ruling class of industrialists, investors, and executives who own the vast majority of a society’s wealth, capital, land, resources, and government power. Seeking to maximize their… read analysis of Bourgeoisie

Liberalism is a political philosophy that remains dominant in much of the contemporary world, and which contrasts with Marxism. Liberalism emphasizes individual economic freedoms and property rights within a capitalist regime, as well as… read analysis of Liberalism

The Enlightenment was a wide-ranging philosophical, artistic, and scientific movement spanning much of the 18th century. Its defining feature was that it began to conceive of human knowledge and inquiry, rather than tradition and God’s… read analysis of The Enlightenment

A republic is the dominant form of government in the contemporary world. It is a form of representative democracy based on the model of Rome, in which the governing body is bound by a set… read analysis of Republic

A vernacular is a commonly spoken language among the people of a territory or state, as contrasted with a language of state or scholarship that may be used in institutions and even in daily life… read analysis of Vernacular

The word creole has a wide variety of meanings in different academic contexts, but in this book it is used to refer specifically to European-descended people who lived in overseas European colonies. This includes the… read analysis of Creole

Popular nationalism is Anderson’s term for nationalist sentiment driven by a country’s common people, often as a result of grievances against the ruling class or a majority group’s sense that it is being marginalized… read analysis of Popular Nationalism

Official nationalism refers to a ruling class’s efforts to arouse nationalist sentiment among the public. It is often used as a means of holding on to power in response to threats posed by popular nationalism… read analysis of Official Nationalism

New Guinea is the world’s second-largest island (after Greenland), which is located in western Melanesia, due north of central Australia. Formerly occupied by the Dutch, Germans, and British, it is now divided in half by… read analysis of New Guinea

This is Anderson’s term for the new concept of time that arose at the end of the Middle Ages. During and before this period, people tended to think of the past, present, and future… read analysis of Homogeneous, Empty Time

This is Anderson’s term for the interplay between printing technology, which made the large-scale production of texts like books and newspapers possible, and the rise of a capitalist economic system that incentivized printers to… read analysis of Print-Capitalism