Two chapters of supplementary material were added to the second edition, which appeared in 1991.

However, this translation would not have had the same diffusion and impact without the previous invention of the printing press.The original edition of the book is divided into nine chapters, which analyze the cultural roots of the idea of the nation and provide a historical account of its political realization across the globe. In turn, the shared language functioned as a denominator of a shared identity, which, according to Anderson, is the basis for the construction of an Imagined Community, i.e. This was crucial for the birth of the German language since more people started reading one version of the language and, consequently, speaking it. Martin Luther translated the Bible into German in 1522. Printing-press capitalismįurthermore, Anderson recognises the printing press as the technological revolution that, together with the above historical factors, has participated in the construction of nations. This process helped to unify German as a language.Īll of the above events have one thing in common: they drove the construction of some shared ideational factors, such as languages in the case of the Reformation or republican symbols, in the case of the fall of monarchies. This was a crucial event because it was accompanied by the first translations of the Bible, from Latin to German. the split of the Western Christian Church into Roman Catholics and Protestants.

The beginning of the Industrial Revolution completely transformed the Northern and Central European socio-economic tissue from feudal to capitalist.

Secularity signifies the division between the state and the Church.

The diffusion of secularity as the organising principle of the state.

In general, the demise of divine right monarchies was crucial for the birth of nations.

The fall of monarchies, such as the fall of the French Monarchy during the French Revolution.This diffusion happened alongside the fall of Latin as the administrative and religious language. The end of the Middle Ages and the weakening of religion as the base of the community.International Climate Change Agreements.Slavery and the Constitutional Convention.Philosophy of the Declaration of Independence.

Anderson imagined communities