Imagined Communities Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism ——_¢——_ BENEDICT ANDERSON Revised EditionNees 1981 i For Mamma and Tantiette in love and gratitude pen ene Beli Librery Cataloguing in Publication Data ISBN 0-96091-329.5, ISBN 0-86091-546-8 (Pbk) US Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data ‘Anderson, Benedict R. O'G. (Benedict Richard O'Gorman). 1936- Imagined communities: reflections on the origin and spread of ere Rev and extnded 2nd ed Includes bibliogra a references (Q._ and index JOBI.AGS6 1991 320.5'4—de20 ‘Typeset by GCS, Leighton Buzzard, Beds. Printed in the USA by Courier Companies, Inc,Introduction Pethaps without being much noticed yet, a fundamental transforma- importance because they are the first to occur between regimes whose independence and revolutionary credentials are undeniable, and because none of the beligerents has made more than che most prfinciory atten Germany (1953), Hungary (1956). Coechoslovakia (196 Afg nistan (1980) in terms of -according ‘defending socialism,’ ete., no one, imagine, seriously believes that such vocabularies have much bearing on what has occurred in Indochina. If the Viemamese invasion and occupation of Cambodia in December 1978 and January 1979 represented the first large-scale conventional war waged by one revolutionary Marxist regime against another," China’s assault on Vietnam in February rapidly confirmed