The Invention of Tradition (1983)

Edited by Eric Hobsbawm, Terence Ranger

Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Online publication date: July 2014
Print publication year: 2012
Online ISBN: 9781107295636
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781107295636

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.