The Invention of Tradition

by Eric J. Hobsbawm (Editor and Author), Terence Ranger (Editor), Hugh Trevor-Roper

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 ritual in British India and Africa; and the attempts by radical movements to develop counter-traditions of their own. This book addresses the complex interaction of past and present, bringing together historicans and anthropologists in a fascinating study of ritual and symbolism which possess new questions for the understanding of our history.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Anthropology, Sociology, Politics, Philosophy, Theory

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1983

About the author

Eric John Ernest Hobsbawm was a British historian of the rise of industrial capitalism, socialism and nationalism. His best-known works include his tetralogy about what he called the "long 19th century" (The Age of Revolution: Europe 1789–1848, The Age of Capital: 1848–1875 and The Age of Empire: 1875–1914) and the "short 20th century" (The Age of Extremes), and an edited volume that introduced the influential idea of "invented traditions". A life-long Marxist, his socio-political convictions influenced the character of his work.
Hobsbawm was born in Alexandria, Egypt, and spent his childhood mainly in Vienna and Berlin. Following the death of his parents and the rise to power of Adolf Hitler, Hobsbawm moved to London with his adoptive family. After serving in the Second World War, he obtained his PhD in history at the University of Cambridge. In 1998, he was appointed to the Order of the Companions of Honour. He was president of Birkbeck, University of London, from 2002 until his death. In 2003, he received the Balzan Prize for European History since 1900, "for his brilliant analysis of the troubled history of 20th century Europe and for his ability to combine in-depth historical research with great literary talent."

Reviews

[Karen· · Rating 5 out of 5]

Own up, all of you who watched even an excerpt from the TV coverage of the recent wedding of the future King and Queen of UK and thought, well, yes, sure the Brits are good at this kind of thing, after all they've had hundreds of years of practice at it. Ummm, no actually. As by far the most readable of the essays in this volume claims, it was not until the very late nineteenth century that the monarchy was aggrandized through elaborate public ritual: William IV's coronation was mockingly known as the Half-Crownation, and at the beginning of her reign, Victoria was obstinate and obstructive, and those responsible for devising ceremonies were incompetent. Did you know, for example, that Victoria's coronation was completely unrehearsed? The clergy lost their place in the order of service, two trainbearers talked throughout the entire ceremony, and the choir was 'inadequate'. Indeed, the function of these ceremonies is as old as the monarchy itself, but the form that the ceremony should take is a reflection of how the role of the monarch is conceived, and that is different in different ages. In his essay, David Cannadine sees a correlation between the waning of royal influence and the growth of enhanced ceremonial - the beginning of what he calls the 'cavalcade of impotence'. He analyses the theatrical performances of royalty between 1820 and 1977, taking in the first show that I remember watching on TV, the investiture of the Prince of Wales - which, as I clearly recall, struck me at the time as a load of humbug.

Another highlight in this volume is Hugh Trevor-Roper taking delight in riling the 'Scotch' as he insisted on calling them, to the annoyance of Scotsmen and women everywhere who normally like to be kept distinct from the stuff sold in bottles. He takes every possible opportunity to remind the reader that it was an Englishman who invented the kilt in the early eighteenth century. With enormous gusto he describes how the idea of a separate tartan for each clan was a 'hallucination' sustained by economic interest, and is surprisingly indulgent and forgiving of the (English) Allen brothers who styled themselves the Sobieski Stuarts and were virtually single-handedly responsible for the creation of the mythology around the 'ancient' Highland dress as a vestige of an early rich civilization - as represented by Ossian. Those clever Englishmen, forging a Scottish national identity and duping the Scots into believing in their own cultural superiority.

Equally informative, if a tad drier, is the piece on Wales by Prys Morgan. Welsh national costume? Invented by the wonderfully named Augusta Waddington."In 1834 she was not even clear as to what a national costume was, but she was sure there ought to be a costume that would be distinctive and picturesque for artists and tourists to look at." Eisteddfods, druids, bards, national heroes? All in the interest of creating a romantic concept of nationhood through cultural history.

I could go on with more examples of the excellence within these covers: the essay 'Representing Authority in Victorian India' (Bernard S. Cohn) could almost be hilariously funny if it weren't for the fact that, sadly, this is all true. Mr. Cohn concentrates on the great assemblage of 1877 whose function was to establish the authority of Victoria as Empress. The arrangements and the attention to hierarchy, symbolic acts and representational insignia is utterly astonishing, and ridiculous, and tragic: when the salute was fired, the noise of the cannon and gunfire stampeded the assembled elephants and horses, killing a number of bystanders and casting a pall of dust over the rest of the proceedings.

Terence Ranger's own contribution on the invention of tradition in colonial Africa is the one I found least enjoyable, probably due to my own lack of knowledge of African history, thus making it hard to grasp. Hobsbawm's essay on Europe is also not an easy read, but there I felt it was the intense concentration of his ideas that made for the slight difficulty. On second reading, it is a magisterial account of the reasons for the mass production of traditions in Europe in the period 1870-1914. He sees these invented traditions as a kind of social cement, collective group self-representations that create cohesive structure in a changing world. He's also excellent on the problematic nature of analysing these inventions - do they come from the top down? Well, yes, but they can only take hold if they touch on a need that is already there.

This is the kind of book that causes a huge shift in the way that you see the world. Magic.

[Harry Rutherford · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Invention of Tradition, edited by Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger, is a selection of essays by different historians. To quote the blurb:

Many of the traditions which we think of as ancient in their origins were, in fact, invented comparatively recently. This book explores examples of this process of invention [...]

There's a great quote in the section on the British monarchy. This is Lord Robert Cecil in 1860, after watching Queen Victoria open parliament:

Some nations have a gift for ceremonial. [...] This aptitude is generally confined to the people of a southern climate and of a non-Teutonic parentage. In England the case is exactly the reverse. We can afford to be more splendid than most nations; but some malignant spell broods over all our most solemn ceremonials, and inserts into them some feature which makes them all ridiculous... Something always breaks down, somebody contrives to escape doing his part, or some bye-motive is suffered to interfere and ruin it all.

150 years later, the British have bigger, more pompous and more gilt-ridden ceremonies than almost anyone, and we see ourselves as especially good at pageantry: the opening of parliament, coronations, jubilees, royal weddings and funerals, and all of it presented as though it was ancient continuous tradition. And in fact much of the content, at least for the coronation, is ancient: it's just that between the early 17th and late 19th centuries, the preparation was generally half-arsed and the results shambolic. Apart from anything else, the symbolism was awkward; Britain was a democracy of a sort, and as long as the monarch was a partisan political figure people were reluctant to surround them with all the trappings of divinely-provided power. It was only once the monarch was reduced to a figurehead that we could safely put them in the centre of these grand pantomimes.

The book also has an essay about the Scots (all that twaddle about clan tartans) and the Welsh (druids and the Eisteddfod), but those stories were broadly familiar, so in some ways the bits I found most interesting were about the British inventing traditions out in the Empire. For example, in India, where they had the problem of how best to assert Imperial authority over a 'country' which was in fact hundreds of small kingdoms held together by force, and how to project Queen Victoria as the focus of that authority while she was thousands of miles away. And although the British had been in India for a long time by then, this represented a new focus, since it was only in the wake of the Sepoy Mutiny/India's First War of Independence in 1857 that control of India was taken from the East India Company and taken over by the state.

So in 1876 they held the 'Imperial Assemblage' to mark Victoria's accession to her imperial title as 'Kaiser-i-Hind' when Indian kings/princes/maharajas gathered with their entourages at a site near Delhi to take turns to approach a pavilion decorated in British heraldic imagery, and each was presented with a banner which had a coat of arms in the European heraldic tradition, designed for the occasion by a Bengal civil servant called Robert Taylor. It sounds like an extraordinary event: apart from the basic weirdness of it, the scale was immense; 'at least eighty four thousand people' attended in one role or another.

Thinking about all this reminded me of my own little moment of inventing tradition. When I was at university, there a couple of people at my halls of residence who wanted to start an all-male discussion club where the members would take turns to present a little speech on some interesting topic, and then everyone would drink sherry and discuss. A couple of friends and I took great delight in coming up with a ludicrously silly constitution for the club, which laid down arcane traditions and provided bizarre titles for the various officers. For example, every meeting was supposed to start with 'the toasting of the Pope': a different Pope each week, working through them in chronological order from St Peter onwards. There was no Catholic connection, pro or anti; I think it was just that the phrase 'the toasting of the Pope' was amusing. In the event there was one meeting and then the club fizzled out. And a good thing too, frankly.

Actually, though, the whole episode was rather fitting; after all, the University of Bristol itself is an institution whose landmark building is a vast Gothic edifice built not in the middle ages, or even at the height of the Gothic Revival in the mid C19th, but in 1915. Pretending to be older than it is — pretending to be Oxbridge, really — is what Bristol does.

Anyway, the book is interesting; some of the essays are better than others — Hobsbawm's own contribution struck me as especially weak — but I'm glad I read it. A slight typographical gripe: irritatingly, quoted passages are marked only by the left margin being indented exactly as much as the first line of each paragraph is indented, which makes it extremely unobvious which paragraphs are quoted. I'm not suggesting that's a reason to avoid the book; I was just irritated by it.

[Owen Hatherley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gets ever more relevant and important by the hour, this one

[NOLaBookish aka blue-collared mind · Rating 3 out of 5]

I find this to be a fascinating subject. The traditions that we follow offer clues as to which tribe we want to join or those to which we already belong; they also indicate which authorities we follow.

As pointed out in the excellent introduction, tradition is a different matter than customs. Tradition is what has become unvaried or fixed, while customs “serve the double function of motor and fly-wheel.” Customs have more to do with the delicate give and take of civil society, although can become tradition and often do. For example, the author points out that much of what judges do is included under customs, but what they wear is tradition.

This collection covers some great examples of invented traditions from different colonial systems, the British monarchy and the European industrial age after 1870 to the start of World War 1, with the last as my personal favorite piece in the book. As used here, it includes those constructed to assert authority or dominance, and those that simply emerged over a brief period of time. With those definitions, one can easily see how knowing how to untangle which is which (and devised by whom) is vital before adopting or defending them. For example, it seems that recently the singing of the national anthem has become a place of protest at sporting events. While writing about the issue, many reporters began to examine this tradition and found it only became the custom around WW2, with the song itself protested by citizens from its adoption as our anthem in 1931. Even Jackie Robinson wrote of his inability to stand and sing the song in his 1972 autobiography. No matter how one feels about the protesting, one can see how it has been hardened into tradition that is now so dearly held by some that the flouting of it is seen as an unpatriotic act.

So upon investigation, it may turn out that some of these dearly held traditions started from pure myth or even from the cooptation of another culture. But knowing which invented traditions are problematic in their origins may be difficult to uncover and in many cases, may not really matter. After all, all traditions are manufactured by people with their meanings changing with the times. This may be the main problem with this book; the editors or the authors just do not make a strong enough case that invented traditions are different in any meaningful manner to the users than "organic" traditions. This lack is apparent in the different essays covered which evade covering any customs or traditions NOT invented by an authority, either governmental or capitalistic in nature.

I certainly agree (as I have said elsewhere in this review) that simply understanding the origins of tradition is vital; that may be the true heart of this book.
For example, it seems important to know whether nationalist pride events are created and staged to support fascism; Hitler was such a master at staging and symbolism and intertwining the two together that it was difficult to separate Teutonic pride from Naziism before and after the war. It has been noted that Naziism was "the reductio ad absurdum of the German tradition of nationalism, militarism, worship of success, and force, as well as the exaltation of state." To me, it proves that the unexamined tradition can be the devil in the detail.

[Данило Судин · Rating 5 out of 5]

Збірку "Винайдення традицій" можна умовно розділити на дві частини. До першої належать тексти, які прямо стосуються винайдених традицій та націоналізму (вступна і заключна статті Гобсбаума та розвідки про Шотландію і Уельс). Це класичні тексти в дослідженнях націоналізму, з якими і асоціюють збірку "Винайдення традицій". Гобсбаум пропонує теоретичний огляд концепції "винайдених традицій", а Тревор-Ропер ілюструє її історією винайдення кілта та всієї горської традиції Шотландії.

Друга група текстів, здається на перший погляд, не мають стосунку до націоналізмів та ще й є цікавими лише для істориків того чи іншого періоду чи країни. Але це хибне враження. Тексти про винайдені традиції в Індії та Африці демонструють, що націоналізм - це химерний спадок колоніалізму. Принаймні, на рівні ритуалів та символів. Часто колонізовані свій протест проти колонізаторів можуть висловити лише у формі символів, які їм були нав’язані колонізаторами. Звісно, оскільки автори марксисти, то і націоналізм в їх збірці стає продуктом колоніалізму. (І цим автори наближаються до ідей Бенедикта Андерсона про колоніалізм та націоналізм).

А стаття про ритуали довкола короля/королеви у Великобританії - це важливий текст про вивчення ритуалів. Автор ненав’язливо демонструє необхідність врахування низки історичних та соціокультурних обставин при вивченні ритуалів, адже спроби шукати універсальні соціологічні чи антропологічні пояснення є приреченими на невдачу: один і той же символ чи ритуал може набувати різних значень в різних історичних обставинах.

Відтак, попри те, що збірці вже "виповнилося" 32 роки, її досі варто читати!

[عمر الحمادي · Rating 2 out of 5]

شدني العنوان ولم يشدني مضمون الكتاب الذي أشبه ما يكون بكتاب تاريخ السلطة في الملكة المتحدة.

لفتت انتباهي هذه الجملة التي نقلها المؤلف من أحد المؤلفين :

كانت عظمة باريس وسان بيترسبورغ رمزا للاستبداد ، وإلا كيف يمكن جمع قوة وأموال كافية لإكمال تلك المنظومات العملاقة ؟ كانت لندن أقل عظمة لكن شعبها لم يكن واقعا تحت ذل الاستبداد.

[Keen Reader · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is really about the invention of tradition in relation to the British Empire and how it used and abused these tools throughout its various colonies at various points in history to maintain control and perpetuate ideas and myths to serve their interests and keep their subjects ignorant and compliant, which was all part of the greater and wider Empire narrative.

Granted this is now forty years old, but much of this writing reads as if written in the 19th century. Hobsbawm’s introduction is poor, being too long and clunky. Although he offers many refreshing and illuminating insights, the man famously known for “authenticating” the fake Hitler diaries back in the 80s, Baron Dacre of Glanton AKA Hugh Trevor- Roper’s desert dry prose on the mythology on Highland Scotland is simply horrible to read.

It was interesting to read about the pomp and ceremony related to royals and other political events grew into the ridiculous come the late 1800s and from there it seemed to become a competitive sport among many of the nations of the world, as they each invented their own rituals and mythology squandering much money, which is how today you get millions of morons across the globe tuning into watch the pomp and ceremony of a mediocre elderly man being celebrated and rewarded for the accident of his birth, at the cost of the taxpayer, as at least 3 million people in the same country regularly rely on food banks just to feed themselves and their family.

If the job of the publishers was to go out and find some of the dullest and driest writers and historians in the game circa 1983, then they have done an excellent job. It’s close to a full house of some of the stalest and most static writing you could find, which is a real shame as these are interesting subjects, but as my dad used to say, you can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.

Terence Ranger’s account of Africa was a good read and he makes his points without descending into dull professor mode. And just as the philosopher V.W. said, "he went and saved the best for last," with Hobsbawm’s contribution, but even the best isn’t great and overall this is a really interesting subject, and I would love to have seen it tackled by a better class of writers, because overall this reads more like a series of failed opportunities than a compelling collection.

[Kevin Carson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I only read the chapters on India and Africa, because that's related to my current research project. The chapter on India focused almost entirely on the Assemblage of 1877 and Victoria's assumption of the title "Empress of India," rather than on the Orientalism of British colonial authorities and their essentializing of ethnic and religious categories, artificially elevating the power of figures like the zamindar outside of any traditional context, etc. But the chapter on Africa was exactly what I was looking for.

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

Edited by Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger, The Invention of Tradition is a collection of essays that revolve around the notion of the invented tradition, which Hobsbawm defines in the introduction as “a set of practices, normally governed by overtly or tacitly accepted rules and of a ritual or symbolic nature, which seek to inculcate certain values and norms of behaviour by repetition, which automatically implies continuity with the past”. He further distinguishes “tradition” and “custom” by claiming that the former is invariant while the latter does not preclude change. These “invented traditions”, however, differ from other “traditions” because they claim to be old despite their more recent origins and they tend to emerge “when a rapid transformation of society weakens or destroys the social patterns for which ‘old’ traditions had been designed”. Hobsbawm identifies three major reasons that traditions are invented: to foster social cohesion among artificial communities, to legitimize authority, and to inculcate beliefs into a society.

The remaining six chapters are case studies that invoke this concept, some more clearly than others, but all in a fairly direct fashion. First, eminent historian Hugh Trevor-Roper takes on Scotland and demonstrates that the most distinctive symbols of Highland culture, such as the tartan and the kilt, were invented in the 18th century for reasons of cultural distinction and later romanticized as legitimate traditions. Next, Welsh historian Prys Morgan describes how the destruction of Welsh culture led to an attempt to preserve it through the romanticization of disparate elements, such as the eisteddfod and Druidic history, which turned them into more attractive and durable cultural products. In the fourth chapter, David Cannadine details the evolution of meaning surrounding once-primitive royal ceremonies and enumerates ten aspects that affect this meaning and four phases of development that end with it becoming so ingrained in the British mindset that they perceive a continuity wherein they have “always” been good at such rituals.

Researched by Bernard Cohn, the fifth chapter shows how, in their quest to establish legitimacy, Britain invented new traditions out of the shells of old ones in an attempt to establish a continuity between their rule and those of previous overlords. In Africa, as Ranger’s penultimate essay suggests, invented traditions that could tie the continent to Britain were used to establish “command and control”. The problem was that the empire overlooked the diversity among African cultures and invented traditions that were too easily appropriated by African elites to boost their own authority. The collection ends as it began, with a theoretical exploration from Hobsbawm, and explores how traditions were “mass-produced” in Europe not only by states and nationalistic entities, but by social organizations such as the labour movement, who employed invented traditions to foster unity. Key is this discussion is the idea that mass spectator sports can be loci for classes, ethnicities, and even nations to build solidarity around a common (and, of course, invented) tradition.

Hobsbawm and Ranger’s collection has become a seminal text in both historical and sociological theory and, while its concept is intuitive, the introduction and final chapter benefit greatly from Hobsbawm’s lucid and accessible prose. One’s interest in the individual chapters might vary based on one’s their involvement with the subject matter and preferred style of writing, but overall there are no superfluous articles and each does a good job of elucidating the book’s concept as a whole. Overall, The Invention of Tradition is a rare example of a work that is approachable, scholarly sound, influential, and actually enjoyable to read. For any student of modern history, regardless of their focus, this collection cannot be overlooked, if for no other reason than its highlighting of the dynamic nature of “history” itself.

[Brad · Rating 3 out of 5]

To start with, let's get a somewhat lengthy definition of the titular concept out of the way.

Invented Tradition is taken to mean a set of practices, normally governed by a set of overtly or tacitly accepted rules and of a ritual or symbolic nature, which seek to inculcate certain values and norms of behavior by repetition, which automatically implies continuity with the past. In fact, where possible, they normally attempt to establish continuity with a suitable historic past.

...

However, insofar as there is such reference to a historic past, the peculiarity of ‘invented’ traditions is that the continuity with it is largely factitious. In short, they are responses to novel situations which take the form of reference to old situations, or which establish their own past by quasi-obligatory repetition.

...

It is the contrast between the constant change and innovation of the modern world and the attempt to structure at least some parts of social life within it as unchanging and invariant.

Finally, Hobsbawm distinguishes this from custom, which "cannot afford to be invariant, because even in ‘traditional’ societies life is not so."

Phew. Okay.

Invented tradition, as bureaucratized custom, has three main purposes:

A.) Establishing social cohesion.

B.) Establishing or legitimizing institutions, status, or relations of authority.

C.) Socialization, inculcation of beliefs, value systems, and behavioral conventions.

Each of these are explored in turn through the context of historical case studies, diving deeply (perhaps dryly) into the granular details of nation-state superstructures (and the material reflections thereof in everything from media to architecture to style of dress) from the late-19th to late-20th centuries.

As an edited volume of chapters, the book starts off feeling like a tedious slog. We explore the origins of 'How Scots became known for kilts and bagpipes' in a way reminiscent of Tolkien's multipage description of Hobbit "pipeweed". Eventually, the writer remembers to bring this back to a broader historical significance.

Things improve throughout from there. The exploration the legitimation of the British crown in colonial India is worth reading as a supplement to historical materialist examination of the base, with an unscrupulous cast of characters who readers of Mike Davis's "Late Victorian Holocausts" will recognize. A similar exploration of the legitimation of the British crown, and both its settler colonial and comprador representatives, is then done for Africa (particularly British more than French colonial Africa).

It helps, naturally, to have an understanding of how reactionary superstructure fills political vacuums (Wendy Brown's "In the Ruins of Neoliberalism") and how idealized reconstructions persist. The book relates this at length to the persistent ceremonial role of the British monarchy at a time when absolutist monarchies of Kaisers and Tsars were being kicked off of the historical stage.

Probably the key takeaway from this volume is:

The point is not merely that so- called custom in fact concealed new balances of power and wealth, since this is precisely what custom in the past had always been able to do, but that these particular constructs of customary law became codified and rigid and unable so readily to reflect change in the future.

[الخنساء]

هوبزباوم في المقدمة التي كان من المفترض أن تكون الخاتمة أتى بزبدة أفكار الكتاب والبحوث المكتوبة فيه، بالنسبة له فالمؤرخين يؤسسون لتقاليد وأعراف ويجعلونها جزء من تاريخ الثقافة البشرية بحيث تشتغل هذه التقاليد على تشكيل السلوك الجمعي وتنميطه وفرض معيارية جماعية وتاريخية تدفع أفراد المجتمع المعني لخوض صراعات دائمة للدفاع عنها.
هوبزباوم يربط وبشدة بين تحولات المجتمع السريعة وضعف أو تفكك الأنماط الاجتماعية التي صممت التقاليد القديمة من أجلها، ويفرق بين تطور العادات في الوضع العادي للمجتمع، واختراع العادات، فلو كانت التقاليد القديمة حية لم يكن هناك حاجة لإحياء أو اختراع تقاليد جديدة.
أفكار هوبزباوم مكتوبة ومطبقة على الأمثلة الموجودة في الكتاب لتتحدث عن التقاليد التي تم اختراعها بسبب تفكك المجتمع التقليدي الأوروبي بسبب الثورة الصناعية والرأسمالية، لكن هل يمكن استخدام نفس الأفكار لدراسة تحولات مجتمعات أخرى كما فعلها الباحثون، داخل الكتاب عند دراسة الهند وقبائل أفريقيا؟
على صعيد آخر تحدث نُعيمان عثمان في كتابه الثمين القبلية معتمداً على أفكار هوبزباوم للتعليق على بعض النقاط المتعلقة بمسألة القبلية، دون تبرير، مع أن الحداثة في الدول العربية مختلفة تماما عن الحداثة السلسة في أوروبا، والتي نتج عنها تغيّر في العادات، واختراع لتقاليد عربية جديدة سببها الحداثة المفاجئة، لا السلسة نتيجة اختلاف الظروف بين المنطقتين.
مجتمعنا السعودي يتعرض لتغيرات سريعة جداً، وتحولات كبيرة في العادات والتقاليد والأنماط في العشر سنوات الأخيرة، لا تحظى بإهتمام أو دراسة علمية دقيقة وجادة، ربما حتى توثيقها وتدوينها لم يتم بعد إلا بغرض الإثارة ربما!!
بلدنا تشتكي إلى الله هذا الإهمال البحثي، والتجاهل من الباحثين والمؤلفين السعوديين.

[Cybermilitia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hayali Cemaatler'de acikta kalmis bir konunun, uluslarin uydurulmasi konusuna da temas ederek, tamamlanmasi. Turkiye'de bu konu temas edilip birakilmis durumda, bu kitaptaki olcude bir arastirma ne yazik ki elimizde yok. Ama Persembeleri sela okuma gibi geleneklerin icat edildigini goruyoruz zaten. Ya da Peyami Safa'nin bir kahramanindan Ulubatli Hasan efsanesi cikarilmasi gibi mesela.

Hobsbawm, sinifsal hikayelerde ya iltimas gecmis, ya da Turkiye tipi ulkelerde solun durumuna ozgu bir durum olabilir ama burada biz bol bol icat edilmis gelenekle karsi karsiyayiz.

Druidleri, kilt etekleri, yeniden yaratilmis kastlari da iceren Iskoc, Gal, Ingiliz, Hindistan ve Afrika gelenek icadi surecleri ancak internet yardimiyla okunabiliyor, cunku benim bilmedigim cok fazla gonderme var. Mesela kis aylarinda tercih ettigim sapkanin Andy Cap adinda bir model oldugunu ve Ingiliz isci sinifi icin zamaninda bir tur kimlik oldugunu buradan ogrendim. :)

Ceviri konusunda fazla sikinti cikmadi. Tek problem Turkceye cevirirken ozgun olacagiz diye asiri turkcelestirilmis terimler. Bu terimleri internette aramak cok zor oluyor.

Edit: https://nisanyan1.blogspot.com/2018/1...

[Ismoil Sadullozoda · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book gives a very good introduction to the concept of "Invention of Tradition" suggested by Eric Hobsbawm.

If you need to understand the concept itself it is enough to read the first chapter-Introduction. This chapter written by E.J. Hobsbawm gives the theoretical explanation of the concept and all the necessary details to comprehend the concept at the theoretical level. For more explanation and examples concerning the concept, you may read the last (seventh) chapter also written by E.J. Hobsbawm where he gives an analysis of the events and invented traditions at the end of XIX and the beginning of XX century Europe.

In the middle goes the chapters by other contributors that analyze the invention of traditions in other societies.

[Bahri Gür · Rating 4 out of 5]

Modernite ve Modern Devlet kavramlarını daha iyi anlamak için doyurucu fakat yer yer sıkıcı bir kitap. İskoçya,Galler kısımlarında konu çok özel olduğu için çok sıkıyor. Kitap genel değil de daha çok özel örnekler üzerinden gidiyor. Bu da akıcılığı zorlaştırmış.

Fakat kitap şunu iyice anlamanızı sağlıyor : Modernleşme ve modern devlet, bin yıllardır korunmuş olan yerel kültür ve gelenekleri hiç olmadığı kadar kökten değiştirmiştir. Orta Çağ'ın emperyal imparatorluklarının hiçbirinin İngiliz İmparatorluğu kadar kültürel hayata etki edememesinin sebebi, geçmiş imparatorlukların yetersizliklerinden değil, modernizmin ve modern devetin hayatın her alanına girmek istemesi ve bunları düzenlemek istemesidir.

[Elif Derin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Genel konusu ve bakış açısı itibariyle özellikle tarihçilerin üzerinde düşünmesi gereken konular. Ama diğer taraftan iskoç kilti, gallerin mitolojik geçmişi gibi bir ingilizi ilgilendirebilecek hatta belki tarihçilerinin bilmesi gereken ama biz türkler için malumatfuruşluktan başka birşey olmayan bir sürü bilgi.
Tavsiye üzerine okuduğum için bana çok şey katacağı, ya da çok farklı bir bakış açısı kazanacağım gibi yüksek bir beklentiyle başladığımdan hayal kırıklığı yaşamış da olabilirim. Eğer tarih bölümünde okuyor ve hocalarınız tarafından devamlı okumalısınız baskısına maruz kalıyorsanız hobsbawm'ın giriş ve sonuç bölümlerini okuyun yeterli olacaktır.

[Iñaki · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un libro excepcional, pero si me tengo que quedar con un artículo (quitando los de Hobsbawn) es sin duda "El invento de la tradición en el África colonial".

Es muy interesante el enfoque del libro y sus objetivos que en ese entonces eran abiertamente novedoso y han sido fundamentales para después la historiografía. Del mismo modo deja claro la necesidad de entender de una forma no vulgar (es decir de nacimiento, apogeo y decadencia, o de "imposiciones" de forma unilateral) las dialécticas que existen en el seno de la sociedades.

Sin duda una grandisima obra

[Robert · Rating 2 out of 5]

The chapter on Scotland is interesting and well-written, but unfortunately the same can't be said for the rest of the book. Most of the chapters ramble without any focus or real point and I ended up skipping parts.

[Farah Mendlesohn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tho dated (1983) it remains a fascinating read. The chapter on Scotland and Highland tropes is attack history at its best. The chapter on Wales should be force fed to “Celtic Fantasy” writers. Most interesting though are the chapters on Africa and India: I’m sure they need rewriting but both are powerful discussions of the use of invented tradition both to develop colonialism and to resist it.

The one chapter I found annoying was the one on the British monarchy which was only interested in England. V frustrating.

[Minifig · Rating 2 out of 5]

Me ha aburrido...

... y el tema era interesante: cómo se han ido forjando presuntas tradiciones con fines e intereses políticos: el kilt y sus tartans para crear una idea de Escocia, el uso de la corona británica como símbolo para unir a la nación, la creación de títulos en la India colonial para absorber las tradiciones locales e integrarlas en la cultura que los colonizaba...

Quizá uno de los problemas ha sido que todo el libro ha estado orientado a la cultura y sociedad británicas, lo que me lo ha hecho un poco lejano. O quizá una gran abundancia de nombres y datos, algo muy útil como fuente de documentación pero que hace pesada una lectura simplemente interesada, o una evidente falta de esmero en la edición, con frases incompletas y errores fruto de no darle una relectura atenta.

El caso es que se me ha hecho bola y me ha llevado más de mes y medio. Si no lo he dejado ha sido más por terquedad que por un sincero interés en el libro.

[Bookshire Cat]

The Highland Tradition of Scotland read for a class - mindblowing! I have been fed lies! :)

[vii · Rating 2 out of 5]

mega mi wyszlo te kolo teorii literatury xd

[nadia]

The hobsbawm chapters are foundational! besides those i thought ranger's chapter on colonial africa & cohn's on monarchy in india were the most interesting

[Βασίλης Πλαΐτης · Rating 4 out of 5]

Δυνατό βιβλίο, ίσως δεν είμαι στην καλύτερη θέση να το διαβάσω λόγω του ότι αφιερώνεται κυρίως στη Βρετανία, μια περιοχή για την οποία αγνοω πολλά. Ιδιαίτερα ενδιαφέρον το κεφάλαιο του Cannadine για τις βασιλικές τελετουργιες

[Brendan McKee · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting read that explores the creation and evolution of traditions, all while reminding us that many are not as old as we imagine them to be. That said, I do find at times that there is an underlying theme that the modern origins of certain traditions makes them inauthentic or fake - a theme particularly evident in the chapter on kilts. In my opinion this may miss the mark, as a new tradition is no less real than an old one. Moreover, this overly modernist focus ignores the fact that new traditions don’t spontaneously appear, but tend to be built with elements of drawn from older ones (is it fair to say that are kilts entirely new, given that they are an evolution of an older form of dress?). None of this will surprise anyone familiar with Hobsbawm of course (his materialism makes him critical of many traditions, particularly nationalism which he holds a noticeable grudge for). Ultimately though, none of this detracts from the read too much as I think the overall message contained in this work is accurate. I would certainly recommend this book to anyone looking to question their notions regarding the modern world’s foundation.

[Andrew]

A handful of pieces by Hobsbawm and his fellow travelers that read like well-written academic papers should: thought-provoking, and nearly free of any kind of grim jargon. What we get is a set of incisive analyses of how English traditions were invented, and how "local" traditions were invented to expand the imperial project and the ambitions of local petty lords in Scotland, Wales, India, and British Africa. The book finishes with an essay by Hobsbawm expanded the purview to the invention of tradition in America and continental Europe, hammering home the point that invented tradition is an almost universal tool to legitimate power

And hey, now I live in a tropical quasi-democratic state where invented tradition is still crassly used by the ruling class to enthrall a population held down by an appalling disparity of wealth. I would read a section of the book, have to stop moving on the subway as the national anthem played (really, guys?!) and think "welp, some shit never changes."

[Philip · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating book about the preservation but also the creation of tradition by nations and groups like labor groups. For example, most Scottish traditions are rather new. The book was written in 1983 so is dated on things like the British crown. Its glowing comments on public approval would have to be tempered with the scadals of Prince Charles and his divorce. And its notes that sports can be unifying. A fun read.

[Lance · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book contains several interested historical studies that show how modern societies have "invented tradition" in order to build the nation-state and community ties. In the end, though, not very theoretically useful. The authors rarely show a methodology or approach that can be used in other work.

[Jan-e · Rating 5 out of 5]

This volume may collect essays on specific "invented traditions", but for me, its true significance lies in illustrating how what we regard as "ancient" and venerable may in fact turn out to be a recent invention, more often than not.
In constructing our cultural identities, we construct our own past as well.

[Deirdre · Rating 3 out of 5]

A mixed bunch of studies which seemed to get less and less penetrable as you go on.

[C.S. Malerich · Rating 2 out of 5]

Like a lot of collections of essays, this one was hit or miss. But the opener on Scottish "traditions" was great. You think "clan tartans" and "kilts" are "traditional"? Think again!