The Invention of Tradition

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E. J. Hobsbawm Editor

T. O. Ranger Editor

Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, MA, 2010; originally published 1980, English

Nonfiction, Architecture; Nonfiction, Urban Design

ISBN: 9780521437738

From the Publisher. 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 19th and 20th 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.

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Barry Bergdoll

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This book really changed the way I thought about myself as a historian and what I wanted to study. It is one of the great models for thinking about the ways in which buildings tell stories at certain times that because of their longevity become part of the stories that cities in turn tell.

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