Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities

This unique book is an absolute must for the understanding of nationalism.

Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism - This is the book that most history students venturing into the study of either cultural history or nationalism are all assigned to read. It also happens to be fairly interesting, well-written and rather useful. The premise is that communities cannot be created by simply drawing some borders and declaring a nation, they must be imagined, or understood by those people who are part of them. In order for a nation of people to feel like a nation they have to see themselves as somehow similiar and connected to other people in that nation, no matter how far away or strange they may be. Anderson outlines the many ways in which this can be achieved through language, the reading of newspapers, national holidays, the development of roads and cities and even though symbols and clothing. This is well worth the time if you're interested in constructions of the social, the development of nationalism or the creation of the modern nation state.