Sarah's Anderson Quotations

1. Anderson suggests that, contrary to the common perception of nations, a nation is in fact an imaginary entity: "It is imagined because the members of even the smallest nation will never know most of their fellow-members, meet them, or even hear of them, yet in the minds of each lives the image of their communion" (Anderson 6).  Thus, though members of a nation may have no real physical connection--may indeed be completely unknown to each other--their concept of shared nationality creates a strong psychological bond between them, which forms the bedrock of their nation.

2. Unlike those who have proposed that nationalism is rooted in xenophobia, Anderson believes that nationalism is actually founded upon love for one's country.  Indeed, he argues, "the cultural products of nationalism--poetry, prose fiction, music, plastic arts--show this love very clearly in thousands of different forms and styles.  On the other hand, how truly rare it is to find analogous nationalist products expressing fear and loathing" (Anderson 142-3).  The lack of evidence for the former model, coupled with the abundant wealth of evidence for the latter, compel one--in Anderson's view--to perceive nationalism as a product of love rather than fearful hatred.