Nation Building

Question 1

According to Anderson, what is a nation?

Answer 1

Anderson says that a nation is an imagined community. It only exists so long as we say it does. It can also be seen as a work of art, since it is completely designed by us. The nations are held together through media, education, history, and aaaaallll the invented traditions like flags and symbols

Question 2

Why does communism never last?

Answer 2

Nationalism! It has a way of uniting people through social class
Horizontal unification: Across borders
Vertical Unification: Across social classes

Question 3

What does Hobsbawm Suggest?

Answer 3

The things that bring a nation together were intentionally invented to do so. e.g. Thanksgiving was a tradition degreed by Abraham Lincoln as a way of uniting the states.

Question 4

Discuss Johann von Herder and his perspective of language’s effect on nationalism

Answer 4

States that a poet is a creator of the nation around him. He believes that it is unnatural for people to speak difference languages, and that common languages unite people. He celebrated the use of German as a literary language. The Brothers Grimm

Question 5

Discuss Johann von Herder and his perspective of language’s effect on nationalism

Answer 5

States that a poet is a creator of the nation around him. He believes that it is unnatural for people to speak difference languages, and that common languages unite people. He celebrated the use of German as a literary language. The Brothers Grimm helped with this by writing a bunch of stories in a common language

Question 6

Discuss Otto von Bismarck

Answer 6

Otto believed in real politik. He didn’t really care about nationalism, he just picked what propelled him forward the best. His primary allegiance was to the Prussian state. Nothing else.
Unification through blood and iron, because he wanted to unite everyone under Germany.
- War with Denmark
- War with Austria
- War with France
Bismarck declares the Second Reich (the First Reich being the Holy Roman Empire, which wasn’t really politically united at all)

Question 7

What was the foundation of German Unification?

Answer 7

Culturally united by Bismarck, it’s political foundation lies on the unification of Prussia, Austria, and France through war.
Leopold von Ranke, the first professional historian of Germany helped with cultural unification. Which is funny, because Germany didn’t really have any history yet
Kulturkampf: Bismarck caused culture wars, making the jews a common enemy for unification purposes
Sonderweg: The mysterious way the Germans have of uniting super quickly, through militarization