vou escrever uma recensão crítica para a faculdade, depois meto cá a versão resumida xD

4 stars for the central insight--“‘Traditions’ which appear or claim to be old are often quite recent in origin and sometimes invented"--and for the dogged dedication to teasing it out to the farthest corners of the empire(s). And this book is full of interesting historical bits, including a few about attitudes toward London's architecture in the early 20th century, so I'm a happy lady.

Spesso, ciò che consideriamo "tradizionale" non è un'eredità immutabile, ma una costruzione recente, creata con l'intento di consolidare l'identità culturale o politica di una comunità. Questo fenomeno è stato approfondito in questo saggio, che esplora come molte pratiche ritenute antiche siano in realtà frutto di processi moderni.

Un aspetto interessante è come essa venga usata per legittimare autorità, creare senso di appartenenza o rafforzare legami sociali. Spesso, tradizioni inventate emergono in momenti di cambiamento sociale, quando le comunità sentono il bisogno di ancorarsi a valori "antichi" per affrontare l'incertezza.

Il saggio esamina per l’appunto alcuni dei momenti fondamentali:- la nascita del sentimento patriottico nell’800, la rivoluzione industriale e come essa abbia influito nella miticizzazione delle figuri regali, la creazione del rito dell’incoronazione di recente fattura, la tradizione gaelica e del Galles anche esse figlie dell’epoca romantica, infine come le tradizioni abbiano aiutato il sistema colonialistico (in India e in Africa).

Il saggio storico ci invita a riflettere criticamente su ciò che consideriamo autentico o ancestrale, ricordandoci che la storia e le tradizioni sono spesso il risultato di processi di costruzione culturale e politica.

Read intro and first two and a bit parts of the last chapter, to read about the role of the invention of tradition in football and nationalism. Didn't go into huge detail, but it was looking at an old time frame. Mixed feelings on Hobsbawm in general. See e.g. https://workersliberty.org/story/2012... or I think Ellen M Woods.

El libro trata un tema que me encanta, y aún así ha sido una enorme decepción. Tengo la sensación de que se cuentan historias aleatorias donde la invención de las tradiciones es una simple excusa, un hilo conductor sin más. Historias que, personalmente, ni me gustan ni me parecen universales, sino demasiado anglosajonas. Ni siquiera el modo de narrar me ha parecido atrayente, ni en estilo ni el ir tambaleándose de un lado al otro. Al que le interese mucho el tema, sin duda no le será una pérdida de tiempo leerlo. Pero paciencia, y ánimo.

hobsbawn'ın son makalesi cigerimi dağladı ama mükemmel kitap

It is impossible to give a rating to such a classic. I'll say however that even if this is the essay that started the field of invented tradition study, for those who have already some experience with this concept this is not necessarily a mandatory reading

A very fine book, I expected nothing else of Hobsbawm and his colleagues. Now I have to live with the disappointment about Scottish culture since I know that the Cilt is an invention by an Englishman and not that old. ;-)

I'm bingeing on anti-monarchism, at least on critical history of monarchy. This one's pretty famous - a collection of essays by popular historians (including poor old Hugh Trevor-Roper who was about to become a laughing stock for authenticating the Hitler diaries when this book came out in 1983). It's about the careful production, by monarchs and law-makers and bureaucrats, over a busy period of about 100 years, of the traditions, protocols (and modes of thought) that govern the Crown-constitutional status quo of the present day.

The two best-known essays in the book are the long introduction by Eric Hobsbawm and the central essay 'The Context, Performance and Meaning of Ritual : The British Monarchy and the ‘Invention of Tradition’ c. 1820–19771' by David Cannadine (him off the radio). Hobsbawm's essay is brilliant and wide-ranging survey of the response of monarchy to revolution and social change across Europe. The long, complicated sentences he's famous for, the impatience and idiosyncracy. A great read.

The best essay, though, is the Cannadine. I'm not a historian but I recognise good history when I see it - the depth of research, the imaginative reading of papers and contemporary accounts, the against-the-grain interpretation of conventional wisdom. The effect of the essay is not to topple the monarchy or to make it seem absurd - this is not a republican polemic - but to make it an integral, deliberate part of the mechanism of state, to remove the mystique about the ritual that sustains it, to clarify the origins and purpose of the traditions we now observe as somehow eternal.

The core of the essay is that essentially all of the traditions that sustain the contemporary Crown-Parliamentary system (what Tom Nairn calls 'Ukania') were invented during a critical 50 year period beginning with Queen Victoria's return to public life in the 1870s. Brilliant functionaries returned to the history books to find useful rituals from the mediaeval or Tudor/Stuart periods and recreated them for the present day - the state opening of Parliament, coronations, royal weddings, funerals and state visits - all were invented or updated in that period.

An excellent example is the whole idea of the investiture, unheard-of for centuries but revivived for the crowning of Edward VII's son as Prince of Wales in 1911 (and then updated further for Prince Charles in 1969). A gloriously silly, cod-Welsh, pretend-ancient ritual that fooled almost everyone, gave the role of the Prince of Wales some historic heft and contributed to the project of turning a remote, London-centric monarchy into a popular, multi-national affair.

The stories in Cannadine's essay about the awful, half-baked ritual of the period before the modernisation are worth the read on their own - the terrible, ill-prepared choral singing; the drunken fighting at formal dinners; the chaotic processions; the casual assortment of worn-out uniforms, surplices and robes; the chatty and insolent congregations at funerals and the routine heckling and abuse from the hoi poloi.

One of the things that we're enjoying about the present royal palaver (I'm writing this between the death and funeral of HRH Queen Elizabeth II) is the glimpses we get of the arbitrary and the contingent in the highly-ordered ritual of death and succession. The moment when Prince Charles impatiently ordered a pen-holder to be moved when signing one of his many proclamations which reminded us that no one has done this for over 70 years so the poor sod who put it there probably just guessed where it should go. The weird combination of red carpet event and solemn moment for the ages that's been concocted for the coffin's tour of the provinces and the lying in state. It's high-grade constitutional show business. Whether it can sustain another turn of the royal merry-go-round, supervised by the Queen's apparently less compliant and more opinionated successor, remains to be seen. It's going to be interesting.

Awesome studies. Really a great theoretical tool for the study of nationalism, especially Cannadine's recollection of the history of the British monarchy. His description of "the preservation of anachronism" was very lucid and especially insightful.

A favourite of mine. Hobsbawm´s introduction sets the base - his co-authors put in the historical examples to put colour to the theory. It is really worth reading it over and over again. I especially enjoyed the parts on Welsh and Scottish traditions, invented at some point of the 18th and 19th century.
This makes you think about the supposedly traditional "ways of behaviour" you were accustomed to!

Some great essays here. I would've liked to see a few more theoretical approaches as well, however. Also surprised that there was no chapter on constructing Irishness, aside the inventions of Welsh, Scottish, and English traditions.