Anthony D. Smith
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Anthony D. Smith is a noted English theorist of nationalism.
Smith took his first degree in Classics and Philosophy in Oxford, and his master's degree and doctorate in Sociology at the London School of Economics. He is currently Professor of Ethnicity and Nationalism in the European Institute at the London School of Economics.
He is a former student of the philosopher and anthropologist Ernest Gellner, but did not share his view of nationalism in the long run. He created an approach of nationalism he called ethnosymbolism, which is a synthesis of modernist and traditional views on the subject.
Smith argues that nationalism draws on the pre-existing history of the "group" an attempts to fashion this history into a sense of common identity and shared history. This is not to say that this history should academically valid or cogent - indeed, Smith asserts, many nationalisms are based on historically flawed interpretations of past events and tend to overly mythologise small, inaccurate parts of their history.
Nationalism, according to Smith, does not require that members of a "nation" should all be alike, only that they should feel an intense bond of solidarity to the nation and other members of their nation. A sense of nationalism can inhabit and be produced from whatever dominant ideology exists in a given locale. Nationalism builds on pre-existing kinship, religious and belief systems.
[edit] Selected publications
- (1971) Theories of Nationalism, ISBN 0-7156-0555-0; 2nd ed. (1983), ISBN 0-7156-0584-4
- (1987) The Ethnic Origins of Nations, ISBN 0-631-15205-9
- (1991) National Identity, ISBN 0-14-012565-5
- (1995) Nations and Nationalism in a Global Era, ISBN 0-7456-1018-8
- (1998) Nationalism and Modernism, ISBN 0-415-06340-X
- (2000) The Nation in History, ISBN 0-7456-2580-0
- (2003) Chosen Peoples: Sacred Sources of National Identity, ISBN 0-19-210017-3
