Ernest Gellner: Nation

Ernest Gellner was Czech anthropologist, philosopher and sociologist. Explore interesting quotes on nation.

Ernest Gellner: 64 quotes0 likes

“I am deeply sensitive to the spell of nationalism. I can play about thirty Bohemian folk songs… on my mouth-organ. My oldest friend, who is Czech and a patriot, cannot bear to hear me play them because he says I do it in such a schmalzy way, 'crying into the mouth organ'. I do not think I could have written the book on nationalism which I did write, were I not capable of crying, with the help of a little alcohol, over folk songs, which happen to be my favourite form of music.”

"Reply to Critics" in The Social Philosophy of Ernest Gellner

“Tribalism never prospers, for when it does, everyone will respect it as a true nationalism, and no-one will dare call it tribalism.”

Source: Nations and Nationalism (1983), Chapter 6, Social Entropy And Equality, p. 87

“It is nationalism which engenders nations, and not the other way round.”

Nations and Nationalism (1983)

“In brief, nationalism is a theory of political legitimacy, which requires the ethnic boundaries should not be cut across political ones, and, in particular, that ethnic boundaries within a given state — a contingency already formally excluded by the principle in its general formulation — should not separate the power holders from the rest.”

Source: Nations and Nationalism (1983), Chapter 1, Definitions, p. 1

“It is this which explains nationalism: the principle — so strange and eccentric in the age of agrarian cultural diversity and the 'ethnic' division of labour — that homogeneity of culture is the political bond, that mastery of (and, one should add, acceptability in) a given high culture … is the precondition of political, economic and social citizenship.”

Nationalism (1997)