• Introduction


• 1. Herder's Heritage


• 2. Strategies and Means


• 3. Conflict and Consensus


• 4. Categorization struggles


• 5. Network Boundaries


• 6. Culture and Closure


• Conclusions


• Acknowledgments


• Notes


• Bibliography


• Index

Andreas Wimmer is Professor of Sociology and Faculty Associate of Politics at Princeton University. His research is aimed at understanding the dynamics of nation-state formation, ethnic boundary making and political conflict from a comparative perspective. He is author of Nationalist Exclusion and Ethnic Conflicts: Shadows of Modernity (Cambridge, 2002) and Waves of War: Nationalism and Ethnic Politics in the Modern World (Cambridge 2012) and his articles have been published by the American Journal of Sociology, the American Sociological Review, World Politics, Sociological Theory and Ethnic and Racial Studies, among others. Professor Wimmer's work has won best article awards from the Comparative Historical, Political, Cultural, and Theory sections of the American Sociological Association as well as the Thyssen Prize for Best Article in the Social Sciences.

Introducing a new comparative theory of ethnicity, Andreas Wimmer shows why ethnicity matters in certain societies and contexts but not in others, and why it is sometimes associated with inequality and exclusion, with political and public debate, with closely-held identities, while in other cases ethnicity does not structure the allocation of resources, invites little political passion, and represent secondary aspects of individual identity.