Though this book thinks it's about nationalism, and is certainly about that too, it is really about several overlapping ideas, some of which may not even have names. It is about self & other. It is about identification/idealization. It is about the power of giving something a name. It is about the exercising of power through control of the categories of thought.

Anderson introduces the concept of "nation" by distinguishing it from other human communities because people are willing to kill and die for it. Though people may bond over common professions or fandom of sports teams, their attachment rarely will rise to a kill-or-be-killed level, but I wonder about this distinction. If the Spartan (for example) weren't dying for a nation in its modern version, wasn't it the equivalent for its time? In fact, people have always been willing to die for causes. In the present day world, causes are often built-in features of the nation concept. It's "our freedom" they hate (or so goes the slogan). The idea that America (say) could so betray its own defining values as to no longer be America is an idea I've heard expressed more than once but the cognitive ability to be able to think in such an abstract way is unlikely to catch on. Instead, America is defined by its logo-map, it's shared culture and language, it's "dream" of classlessness which won't yield to the fact that it is easier to transcend your class origins in Germany, Japan or Canada. It is, in a word, "imagined." Having recently read Matt Taibbi's [b:The Divide: American Injustice in the Age of the Wealth Gap|17834864|The Divide American Injustice in the Age of the Wealth Gap|Matt Taibbi|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1403165815s/17834864.jpg|24955022] , I'm aware that a great deal of my understanding of how America works is false but even after being informed, much of the myth feels real to me.

A nation is the most successful packaging of the collective self in a way that feels tangibly real. It incorporates as many sub-selves, e.g sports teams, celebrities, music, as can be squeezed in. This book explains how this has been done historically and gives the details of the forces working for and against the various possible shapes and characters of numerous "actual" nations.

It is written in a mostly jargon-free often literary style that makes it fun to read, though it sometimes becomes hard to follow in its specificity. The last chapter is a metachapter which follows how the book itself, nicknamed I.C., is translated and shaped to conform to the national needs of readers world wide.