Imagined Communities

Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism is a book by Benedict Anderson about the development of national feeling in different eras and throughout different geographies across the world. It introduced the term "imagined communities" as a descriptor of a social group—specifically nations—and the term has since entered standard usage in myriad political and social science fields. The book was first published in 1983 and was reissued with additional chapters in 1991 and a further revised version in 2006. The book is widely considered influential in the social sciences, with Eric G.E. Zuelow describing the book as "perhaps the most read book about nationalism." It is among the top 10 most-cited publications in the social sciences. In its Chinese edition, Taiwanese translator Wu Rwei-Ren states in the preface that the immediate impetus for Benedict Anderson—long engaged in the study of Southeast Asian affairs—to write this work, was the outbreak of the Third Indochina War in 1978–79 among China, Vietnam, and Cambodia.