The Invention of Tradition / Edition 1

by Eric Hobsbawm, Terence Ranger

Overview

Many of the traditions which we think of as very ancient in their origins were not in fact sanctioned by long usage over the centuries, but were invented comparatively recently. This book explores examples of this process of invention – the creation of Welsh and Scottish 'national culture'; the elaboration of British royal rituals in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; the origins of imperial rituals in British India and Africa; and the attempts by radical movements to develop counter-traditions of their own. It addresses the complex interaction of past and present, bringing together historians and anthropologists in a fascinating study of ritual and symbolism which poses new questions for the understanding of our history.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781107604674
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	03/26/2012
Series:	Canto Classics
Edition description:	Reissue
Pages:	324
Sales rank:	345,217
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.80(d)

Table of Contents

1. Introduction: inventing traditions Eric Hobsbawm; 2. The invention of tradition: the Highland tradition of Scotland Hugh Trevor Roper; 3. From a death to a view: the hunt for the Welsh past in the Romantic period Prys Morgan; 4. The context, performance and meaning of ritual: the British Monarchy and the invention of tradition, c.1820–1977 David Cannadine; 5. Representing authority of tradition in Victorian India Bernard S. Cohen; 6. The invention of tradition in Colonial Africa Terence Ranger; 7. Mass-producing traditions: Europe, 1870–1914 Eric Hobsbawm.

Editorial Reviews

'The most stimulating history book which has come my way this year …'. History Today

From the Publisher