NM's blog

There is no single, unified 'errata catalogue' or official master list of literal errors for Imagined Communities . Instead, the book’s flaws, factual inaccuracies, and conceptual gaps are scattered across a vast body of academic peer reviews, essays, and counter-theories.  [1, 2]  Because Benedict Anderson was a political scientist and Southeast Asian specialist rather than a historian of antiquity or Europe, his book suffers from a distinct pattern:  his literal data gets sloppier the further he steps outside his geographical area of expertise .  [3]  The standard academic criticisms and noted flaws of  Imagined Communities  generally fall into three distinct categories: 1. Empirical and Factual Mistakes (Outside Southeast Asia) Like the highly inaccurate Matthew genealogy quote, Anderson made multiple broad historical generalizations that experts in those fields have flagged as incorrect:  [3]  The European Gutenberg Bias:  Anderson h...

“ In my benchmark estimates, I find that the bottom 50% of the world population emitted 12% of global emissions in 2019, whereas the top 10% emitted 48% of the total. Since 1990, the bottom 50% of the world population has been responsible for only 16% of all emissions, whereas the top 1% has been responsible for 23% of the total. While per-capita emissions of the global top 1% increased since 1990, emissions from low- and middle-income groups within rich countries declined. Contrary to the situation in 1990, 63% of the global inequality in individual emissions is now due to a gap between low and high emitters within countries rather than between countries. Finally, the bulk of total emissions from the global top 1% of the world population comes from their investments rather than from their consumption.” Source: Lucas Chancel on nature.com