But with the benefit of almost forty years of hindsight, accumulated scholarship, and continuing political change in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, it is
possible to look back on the fate of nationalism in the new states through a
somewhat different—and clearer—lens from that supplied by Geertz in 1973.
Focusing on post-independence Southeast Asia, this essay offers a comparative
3
Ibid.
Geertz, “After the Revolution,” 237–38.
Geertz, “Integrative Revolution,” 278.
6
See, for example, Anthony Reid, Imperial Alchemy: Nationalism and Political Identity in
Southeast Asia (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010).