Cultural Intimacy: Social Poetics in the Nation-State

Anthropological interest in the nation-state and nationalism has recently intensified. The discipline traditionally viewed the state as an unwelcome intruder into its investigations, but this seminal book explores it as a crucial subject far too long ignored. With the publication of this book in 1997, Michael Herzfeld introduced the notion of "cultural intimacy" - a fascinating paradox that exists when some citizens reject state-sanctioned cultural and legal norms, yet in times of crisis become the most loyal of citizens. Since the initial publication, Herzfeld's ideas have achieved wide recognition and several of the terms he coined in this work are entering the anthropological lexicon: "structural nostalgia," "social poetics," and "cultural intimacy" itself. This second edition, includes a new introduction and conclusion discussing just what cultural intimacy has come to mean for other thinkers who have used this model, and how it can contribute to present studies of global processes and theforces that resist them. In this new edition Herzfeld presents his groundbreaking research in an accessible, highly readable format.