The goal of primary source research
The goal of primary source research is to find first-hand information on an update or an occurrence. Evaluating a primary source is critical, and it is the most significant duty that historians undertake. Examining previous occurrences requires a thorough understanding of the sources associated with the event. Journals, newspapers, autobiographies, and court case records are among the most commonly used historical sources. Every source has a unique set of experiences or skills, which results in a unique interpretation of documents. To analyze a primary source, the researcher must first grasp the document and the time period in which the incident occurred. This essay will, therefore, be aimed at undertaking a primary source analysis or research of the nationalism and the imagined communities.
Nationalism and the imagined communities
Nationalism and the imagined communities is a concept which was brought by Benedict Anderson in his book "Imagined Communities." In this book, Anderson sees a nation as a small community which is constructed socially and he, therefore, put an image of the people who live in the perceived community (Michele 33). Apart from the analysis of Benedict Anderson, the media also have their perceptions towards the imagined communities as the mass audience or the listening public. Anderson published this book in 1983, with the main aim of analyzing and addressing the issue of nationalism and the imagined communities exhaustively. The imagined communities came to existence as a result of print capitalism where capitalist entrepreneurs used to print their books from their mother tongue, purposing to increase the sales as well as the overall circulation to the public. This was also geared to by Europe-wide shortage of money which enabled the business people to make a U-turn and began publishing cheap peddling vernacular editions. In this regard, Luther became the very first author to make many sales by his name.
Defining a nation as an imagined political community
Benedict Anderson defined a nation as an imagined political community, which was strictly limited and possessed supremacy in one way or another. Anderson defined a nation in this manner to justify he believe that even the small communities in the nation did not know their neighbors hence he claimed that there was no big difference between the community and the larger nation. Regardless of the unequal distribution of resources to each community, the highest expectation is that unity and comradeship must deeply and horizontally conceive the community members.
The causes of the virtue of nationalism
The theory of Anderson emphasized that the major causes of the virtue of nationalism are the diminishing usefulness of authorized access to certainly used languages brought about by excessive application of vernacular. There was also another movement which aimed at abolishing the good knowledge of ruling by divine freedom and inheritable monarchy. Most of the languages were from the Church Latin, Quranic Arabic and the examination Chinese before they were converted to vernacular though not so much acceptable in particular religious opinions. They were in some cases acceptable by some communities although in an unexplainable transmutation.
The revolutionary use of vernacular and the rise of nationalism
There are several factors which enabled the emphasis on the revolutionary use of vernacular, with two of them contributing directly to the rise of nationalism. A change in the character of the Latin language itself was the first factor, which led to an increased spread of Christianity through printed materials. The second factor was the outcome of reforms employed whose success was determined by the print-capitalism and lastly, there was slow, geographically ununiformed and spread of different local languages as administrators of general centralization of several monarchs who seemed to be respected and top-ranked in the communities.
The role of imagination in the imagined community
Benedict Anderson argues that 'national imagination' is witnessed at work in the movement of a brave man, passing through a landscape which seems to be sociological and comparing the community with the rational world. In this case, the imagined community has got everything similar to the nation (Benedict 70). A story also characterizes the imagined community told of a young man who used to read the book of Anderson, where he looks for a corpse of the destitute vagrant, but he doesn't see it. He, therefore, imagines it from a printed newspaper though he doesn't care whose body he was looking for. The imagination comes to the mind of the reader in two dimensions; the first one being the calendric coincide portraying the date when the newspaper was published and the second dimension is seen when examining the relationship of the newspaper and the market. In this case, the newspaper is viewed as a form of a book.
The role of print-capitalism in enhancing nationalism
Nationalism and the imagined community writing were enabled by the print-languages to enhance national consciousness through three major different ways. The first one is that they created a well-set conducive ground of exchange and enhanced communication simply below the Latin language and above the spoken mother tongues (John & Llewellyn 17). This enabled efficiency and proper understanding among the business people. The second issue was the print-capitalism which brought about another understandable language of reading and interpreting and helped in building an image which directly matched the ideas and overall objectives of the nation (imagined community). The print-capitalism thirdly created key languages which were spoken by the powerful nation hence being named as the languages-of-power. These languages were different from the older vernacular ones. This contributed to nationalism as well as making it easy to identify the imagined community through speaking the same language.
The theorizing of nationalism by Benedict Anderson
Anderson historically sees nationalism as something that is not easy to achieve especially from the view and examination of Marxist theory and thus concludes that it (nationalism) still needs to be theorized or in other words, conceptualized. Anderson in his argument put it clear that the imagined communities were the only available tools for reconciling conflicting communities and nations. The author also imagined that the political community being both limited and sovereign, would not be in a position to identify their members and would be part of those who would bring revolution and freedom to the nation. Anderson also made a major contribution in the case of the models of nations and nationalisms. He disagreed and undermined the idea which supported the argument that the nation was both from an essentialist category and the European origins. Anderson puts it clear beyond no doubt and argues that the first nationalists emerged from Creole communities, who were the descendants of white European settlers and not as earlier claimed through the idea.
The concept of the imagined community in the modern world
The imagined communities could be seen as new and that they never existed before but they can be seen in the new modern world. Many languages existed during the time of identifying the dead political bodies of the community's unknown leaders who were characterized by sacred languages, sacred cosmology, and dynasty power. Individuals could sometimes identify themselves as the imagined community especially when they saw that they were low materially and could not afford to live comfortably. These community members could also categorize themselves as poor and possess the perception of 'homogeneous empty time.' Print capitalism helped a lot in printing different novels in vernacular such that every member of the community could read and understand as well as enjoying for being part and parcel of the community. The concept of the imagined community was therefore contributed to, by the possibility to envision parallel and multiple realities connecting individuals to other individuals in the community.
Works cited
Anderson, Benedict. "Imagined Communities: Origin and Spread of Nationalism, revised edition." (2016): 67-78
Gleaves, John, and Matthew Llewellyn, "Ethics, Nationalism, and the Imagined Community: The Case against Inter-National Sport." Journal of the Philosophy of Sport 41.1 (2014): 1-19.
Hilmes, Michele. Only connect A cultural history of broadcasting in the United States. Cengage Learning, 2013: 3-43
