Benedict Anderson
Benedict Anderson was a prominent scholar born on August 26, 1936, in Kunming, China, to an Irish father and an English mother. After moving to the United States and later Ireland during his childhood, he pursued higher education at Cambridge University and Cornell University, where he earned a doctorate in government. Anderson's academic career was distinguished, primarily spent at Cornell until his retirement in 2002. He is best known for his influential work on nationalism, particularly through his seminal book, "Imagined Communities," published in 1983. In this work, he argued that nations are socially constructed "imagined communities" where individuals share a sense of belonging despite not knowing each other personally. He also explored the role of print media in fostering national identity, asserting that it helped unify diverse linguistic groups and created collective narratives. Throughout his life, Anderson was an avid traveler, a polyglot, and an engaged scholar of Southeast Asia, particularly Indonesia and the Philippines. He adopted two children from Indonesia and continued to contribute to various academic fields until his passing on December 13, 2015, in Malang, Indonesia.
Benedict Anderson
Academic, professor, political scientist
- Born: August 26, 1936
- Birthplace: Kunming, China
- Died: December 13, 2015
- Place of death: Kota Batu, Indonesia
Also known as: Benedict Richard O'Gorman Anderson
Education: Cambridge University; Cornell University
Significance: Benedict Anderson was a scholar who helped develop ideas about nationalism. (Nationalism is loyalty to one's nation and feelings of pride and devotion for it.) Anderson believed that nationalism was a modern creation. He believed that nationalism was also inspired by capitalism, media, and other aspects of modern life. Anderson's academic research had an important impact on various disciplines, including political science and sociology.
Background
Benedict Richard O'Gorman Anderson was born in Kunming, China, on August 26, 1936. He was the son of Veronica and Shaemas Anderson. His father was Irish and his mother was English, but they lived in China because Shaemas was in the Chinese Maritime Customs service. The Andersons moved to California in 1941 to escape the escalation of World War II (1939–1945). The family then moved to Ireland in 1945. Anderson later attended Cambridge University and received a degree in the classics in 1957. He then attended Cornell University in the United States. He earned a doctoral degree in 1967 after studying government. Anderson stayed at Cornell as a professor until he retired in 2002, when he became a professor emeritus of international studies. He continued to study international relations, languages, and other subjects throughout his life.
Life's Work
Anderson became a noteworthy scholar early in his career in part because of the quality and breadth of his work. He focused a great deal of his work on Asia, particularly international relationships among Asian countries. He was interested in how Communist states—such as China, Vietnam, and Cambodia—could fight with one another, even though they held the same Communist beliefs. Anderson claimed that nationalism was to blame for this fighting among nations. He analyzed how nationalism affected these countries and countries around the world.
Anderson also had a particular interest in Indonesia, its history, and its culture. In 1961, he traveled to Indonesia for the first time while writing his thesis. He became very interested in the country during his trip. As a graduate student, he helped write an important paper about Indonesia with fellow scholar Ruth McVey. The paper discussed the events that led to Suharto's becoming the dictator of Indonesia. Suharto's brutal regime lasted more than thirty years and was responsible for the massacre of at least five hundred thousand people. Anderson was banned from Indonesia for many years due of the paper, because it disputed the regime's claims about how Suharto came to power. Anderson was eventually allowed back into the country after Suharto lost power. When Anderson was barred from visiting Indonesia, he began studying the Philippines instead.
Anderson is best known for his thoughts about nationalism. He viewed the idea of nations as a human construction. In 1983, Anderson published the book Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. The book furthered Anderson's ideas about nationalism. In the book, he claimed that nations were imagined communities because all the people inside the community did not and could not know each other. Their sense of community and connection was merely an imagined one. Anderson also believed that nationalism was a modern invention. This idea contrasted with some political scientists who believed that ancient nation-states had similar ideas about nationalism as people do in the modern world.
Anderson also believed that modern technologies and systems—such as schools, media, and health systems—worked toward creating a national identity. Anderson thought that print media, specifically newspapers, were especially powerful in creating national pride and consensus. He argued that people created shared identities based on the stories that they read about other people in their country. These stories helped them create a national identity. This identity eventually became so strong that people would sometimes kill and die for it, even though they had never met most of the other people who shared that identity. Print media also helped group people together based on language. The printed word helped bring together groups with different vernaculars, and it helped slow down changes in language that might have hindered communication among groups of people.
Anderson was a worldly academic who honed skills in various areas. He was masterful at learning languages and could speak English, Thai, Spanish, Tagalog, Indonesian, Japanese, French, and Dutch. He also learned Latin and Greek as a student. He used his knowledge of language to help him better understand the cultures and nations he studied. Anderson wrote a number of books throughout his career, and he wrote in multiple languages. He also translated other works. In addition, he was known for being an exacting professor who expected his students to work hard and be prepared. He traveled a great deal, and he had homes in the United States and in Bangkok. Anderson died on December 13, 2015, in Malang, Indonesia. He was seventy-nine years old.
Impact
To most people living around the world, the idea of the nation seems normal. Nearly all people around the world identify themselves by the nations in which they live. Anderson, however, saw nations as a creation of humans. Anderson's ideas about and scholarship on nationalism helped the world gain a new perspective on nations and international relations. Anderson's work is difficult to classify because its scope is broad. His work has influenced the fields of political science, sociology, history, and even economics. Anderson's work had a great influence on progressive academics. Furthermore, his extensive studies of Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines helped Western scholars better understand political and social issues in those countries.
Personal Life
Anderson adopted two Indonesian children, Yudi and Beni.
Principal Works
- Mythology and the Tolerance of the Javanese, 1965
- Java in a Time of Revolution: Occupation and Resistance, 1944–1946, 1972
- Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism, 1983
- Under Three Flags: Anarchism and the Anti-Colonial Imagination, 2006
Bibliography
Abinales, Patricio. "Yes, Benedict Anderson Was a Political Scientist." Washington Post, 21 Dec. 2015, www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2015/12/21/yes-benedict-anderson-was-a-political-scientist/?utm‗term=.4a0d21e4985c. Accessed 16 Feb. 2017.
Blackburn, Robin. "Benedict Anderson." Social Science Research Council, Oct. 2011, www.ssrc.org/pages/benedict-anderson/. Accessed 16 Feb. 2017.
Chan, Sewell. "Benedict Anderson, Scholar Who Saw Nations as 'Imagined,' Dies at 79." New York Times, 14 Dec. 2015, www.nytimes.com/2015/12/15/world/asia/benedict-anderson-scholar-who-saw-nations-as-imagined-dies-at-79.html?‗r=0. Accessed 16 Feb. 2017.
Friedlander, Blaine. "Benedict Anderson, Who Wrote 'Imagined Communities,' Dies." Cornell Chronicle, 15 Dec. 2015, www.news.cornell.edu/stories/2015/12/benedict-anderson-who-wrote-imagined-communities-dies. Accessed 16 Feb. 2017.
Leovy, Jill. "Benedict Anderson Dies at 79; Southeast Asia Scholar Studied Roots of Nationalism." Los Angeles Times, 19 Dec. 2015, www.latimes.com/local/education/la-me-benedict-anderson-20151220-story.html. Accessed 16 Feb. 2017.
Reid, Anthony. "Benedict Anderson Obituary." Guardian, 1 Jan. 2016, www.theguardian.com/books/2016/jan/01/benedict-anderson. Accessed 16 Feb. 2017.