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 Macat Library

A MACAT ANALYSIS

ERNEST GELLNER’S

NATIONS AND
NATIONALISM
 An Analysis of

Ernest Gellner’s
Nations and
Nationalism

Dale J. Stahl
Copyright © 2017 by Macat International Ltd
24:13 Coda Centre, 189 Munster Road, London SW6 6AW.

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Notice
The information in this book is designed to orientate readers of the work under analysis,
to elucidate and contextualise its key ideas and themes, and to aid in the development
of critical thinking skills. It is not meant to be used, nor should it be used, as a
substitute for original thinking or in place of original writing or research. References and
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CONTENTS

WAYS IN TO THE TEXT

Who Was Ernest Gellner? 9
What Does Nations and Nationalism Say? 10
Why Does Nations and Nationalism Matter? 12

SECTION 1: INFLUENCES
Module 1:The Author and the Historical Context 14
Module 2: Academic Context 18
Module 3:The Problem 23
Module 4:The Author’s Contribution 28

SECTION 2: IDEAS
Module 5: Main Ideas 33
Module 6: Secondary Ideas 38
Module 7: Achievement 43
Module 8: Place in the Author’s Work 48

SECTION 3: IMPACT
Module 9:The First Responses 53
Module 10:The Evolving Debate 58
Module 11: Impact and Influence Today 64
Module 12:Where Next? 69

Glossary of Terms 74
People Mentioned in the Text 85
Works Cited 94
THE MACAT LIBRARY
The Macat Library is a series of unique academic explorations of
seminal works in the humanities and social sciences – books and
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mentioned are included at the end of this book (these are indicated by
an asterisk [*] throughout) – as well as a list of works cited.

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Three allow us to fully understand a problem; three more give us
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PACIER model of critical thinking. They are:

ANALYSIS – understanding how an argument is built

EVALUATION – exploring the strengths and weaknesses of an argument
INTERPRETATION – understanding issues of meaning
CREATIVE THINKING – coming up with new ideas and fresh connections
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CRITICAL THINKING AND NATIONS AND NATIONALISM
Primary critical thinking skill: CREATIVE THINKING
Secondary critical thinking skill: PROBLEM-SOLVING

To the dismay of many commentators – who had hoped the world was
evolving into a more tolerant and multicultural community of nations
united under the umbrellas of supranational movements like the
European Union – the nationalism that was such a potent force in the
history of the 20th-century has made a comeback in recent years. Now,
more than ever, it seems important to understand what it is, how it
works, and why it is so attractive to so many people.
A fine place to start any such exploration is with Ernest Gellner’s
seminal Nations and Nationalism, a ground-breaking study that was the
first to flesh out the counter-intuitive – but enormously influential –
thesis that modern nationalism has little if anything in common with
old-fashioned patriotism or loyalty to one’s homeland. Gellner’s
intensely creative thesis is that the nationalism we know today is
actually the product of the 19th-century industrial revolution, which
radically reshaped ancient communities, encouraging emigration to
cities at the same time as it improved literacy rates and introduced mass
education. Gellner connected these three elements in an entirely new
way, contrasting developments to the structures of pre-industrial
agrarian economies to show why the new nationalism could not have
been born in such communities. He was also successful in generating a
typology of nationalisms in an attempt to explain why some forms
flourished while others fizzled out. His remarkable ability to produce
novel explanations for existing evidence marks out Nations and
Nationalism as one of the most radical, stimulating – and enduringly
influential – works of its day.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR OF THE ORIGINAL WORK
Ernest Gellner was born in Paris, France, in 1925. He spent his
boyhood in Prague, but his time there ended when Nazi Germany
invaded Czechoslovakia and the Jewish Gellners escaped to Great
Britain.
Gellner eventually obtained degrees from Oxford and the London
School of Economics. Having fled his homeland because of the Nazis’
extreme nationalism, it is perhaps not surprising that he came to study
the phenomenon. He finally returned to Prague in 1993 as the
founding director of the Centre for the Study of Nationalism at the
Central European University. He died there just two years later, at the
age of 69.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR OF THE ANALYSIS

Dr Dale Stahl holds a doctorate in history from Columbia University.
He currently teaches in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the
University of Denver, Colorado.

ABOUT MACAT
GREAT WORKS FOR CRITICAL THINKING
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WAYS IN TO THE TEXT
KEY POINTS
• Ernest Gellner was a social theorist and anthropologist
born in Paris, France, in 1925.
• In Nations and Nationalism, published in 1983, he argued
that modern industrial society was responsible for the
advent of nations.
• Nations and Nationalism was the first book to theorize
how economic, social, and cultural changes in human
society brought about the idea of nation.

Who Was Ernest Gellner?

Ernest Gellner, the author of Nations and Nationalism (1983)
was born in Paris, France, in December 1925 to parents from
Bohemia,* a region of what is today the Czech Republic (then
part of the country of Czechoslovakia).* He spent his boyhood in
Prague. When Nazi* Germany invaded Czechoslovakia in March
1939, the region became dangerous for Jewish* people. Gellner’s
family fled to Great Britain. An avid student, Gellner began studying
philosophy, politics, and economics at Oxford University’s Balliol
College in 1943.
World War II* interrupted Gellner’s studies. During the last years
of the war, he served in a brigade of Czechoslovak expatriates that

9
Macat Analysis of Ernest Gellner’s Nations and Nationalism

the British Army organized and armed. He returned to Oxford in

1945, finishing a master’s degree with first-class honors, then taught at
Oxford and at Edinburgh University for two years. In Edinburgh, he
became interested in mountaineering, and he traveled frequently to the
Alps* in his later years, sometimes with his students. From 1949 until
1961, Gellner taught sociology* —roughly, the study of the structures
and forces that shape and form society—at the London School of
Economics. He published his first book, Words and Things, in 1959.
After obtaining his doctorate in 1961, Gellner continued
teaching at the London School of Economics, now as a professor.
Shortly after the publication of Nations and Nationalism in 1983,
he left London for Cambridge University, where for nine years he
taught social anthropology*—a subfield of anthropology (the study
of human beings)—often concerned with things such as economics,
law, and political organization.
In 1993, the president of the Czech Republic, Václav Havel,*
offered Gellner a post at the Central European University. Gellner
served as the founding director of its Center for the Study of
Nationalism* until his death in 1995 at the age of 69.

What Does Nations and Nationalism Say?

Since its publication in 1983, Nations and Nationalism has become one
of the key texts on the subject of nationalism.* Previously, scholars
had believed that nations were ancient and basic—either intrinsic to
the human condition or a matter of collective will. Gellner argued
instead that nations and nationalism emerged in the modern era.
According to Gellner, before industrialization*—the process by
which a society founded on agriculture becomes a society founded
on industry, with the profound economic and cultural implications
that move brings—societies were culturally differentiated from one
another. Large states or empires could rule over diverse populations.
It did not matter if the ruling classes spoke a different language

10
 Ways In to the Text

or practiced a different religion because people adhered to local

customs and traditions that could vary from one region to the
next. They belonged to various kinds of groups, but not to nations.
Industrialization changed that.
In Nations and Nationalism, Gellner argues technological changes
and the needs of new industries created a new workforce. To be
productive, the workforce required a different set of technical
skills. A broad-based education system was born to develop and
perpetuate this workforce. As the organization of society required
more and more people to share a standard language and culture in
order to work effectively, the idea of the nation arose.
Communities coalesced around a unifying culture and, according
to Gellner, shared access to this unifying culture and language made
a group into “a nation.” To administer and protect a national culture,
language, and economy, the boundaries of a state had to match those
of a culture. States do not necessarily need nations, Gellner says in the
text, but nations seek their own states for protection and to perpetuate
the national culture and language. From this comes nationalism: a
political concept in which state and cultural boundaries match.
This new way of understanding nationalism, as Gellner outlines
it in the text, had important implications. First, he argues that the
origins of nationalism can be found in the relationship of economy
to culture. A nation is neither a fundamental aspect of the human
mind nor a deeply embedded facet of human culture. Instead, nations
have arisen from historical changes occurring in the modern period.
Second, Gellner shows how a national education system helped
create a culture connecting many individuals. In the past, groups
with specialized knowledge could function as cultural units. That
is, certain groups such as clerics or a financial elite were culturally
distinct from the mass of the population. Industrialization changed
this, requiring a universal standard of education accessible to all.
Gellner refutes the idea that an elite somehow produced nationalism.

11
Macat Analysis of Ernest Gellner’s Nations and Nationalism

Why Does Nations and Nationalism Matter?

Nationalism is a slippery subject, something Ernest Gellner knew
well. As he wrote, “The idea of a man without a nation seems to
impose a … strain on the modern imagination.”1 In Nations and
Nationalism, Gellner shows how the idea of a nation resulted from
a certain set of circumstances. Although nations often try to assert
ancient roots, Gellner demonstrates that nations are in fact products
of the modern world, born of economic, social, and cultural factors—
an idea that refutes many of the myths that nationalists like to tell.
Gellner’s book also serves as a reminder that there is nothing
“natural” about the nation state. The political legitimacy of the
nation state has evolved throughout modern history. Nations and
Nationalism asks its readers to consider what is true and what is false
in the construction of a collective world of nation states.
The importance of Nations and Nationalism lies in its documentation
of how the nation state came into existence.The text also shows why
this concept came to structure human organization and international
relations. To understand the history of the modern world, one must
understand how the nation originated. More than that, one must
understand how nations came to legitimize states. In the past, a right
to rule might come from conquest or marriage. Now a state gains and
retains legitimacy by protecting the rights of a nation.
More than 30 years after Nations and Nationalism first appeared,
the concepts it addresses continue to be important—especially
in analyzing the power of nationalism and the origin of nations.
Cornell University Press republished the book in 2008 and The
Times Literary Supplement named it one of the 100 most influential
books since the end of World War II.

NOTES
1 Ernest Gellner, Nations and Nationalism (Oxford: Blackwell, 1983), 6.

12
 SECTION 1
INFLUENCES
MODULE 1
THE AUTHOR AND THE
HISTORICAL CONTEXT
KEY POINTS
• Nations and Nationalism was one of the first texts to
theorize about the modern origins of the nation.
• Gellner loved learning and his training in philosophy*
strongly influenced his later work in sociology* (the study
of the structure, history, and forces that shape society)
and anthropology* (roughly, the study of human beings).
• Gellner’s Jewish* upbringing in a country invaded by
Nazi* Germany offered him a real-life lesson in the
power of nationalism*—the political position that the
boundaries of the state and a people’s culture should be
in agreement.

Why Read This Text?

Ernest Gellner’s Nations and Nationalism, published in 1983, set
forth a deceptively simple idea: nations are a product of the modern
world. The nationalist who attributes the origins of the nation to
an ancient battle creates a myth to justify the nation’s existence. We
can trace the real existence and origin of any nation, Gellner argues,
to the shift from an agrarian society*—a society with an economy
based on farming—to a modern, industrial society.*
In arguing this point in the book, Gellner does not just shift the
focus of studies on nationalism. He opens the door to a completely
new way of thinking about and researching nationalism. Rather than
seeking the origins of the nation in the thoughts of nationalists or
in a fundamental aspect of humanness, Gellner shows how the idea

14
 Section 1: Influences; Module 1: The Author and the Historical Context

“trauma
At the age of thirteen, Gellner underwent the
of that dangerous journey across Europe and
lost his friends and social moorings. In his teenage
years he dreamed constantly of Prague, viscerally
longing to go back.
”
John A. Hall, Ernest Gellner: An Intellectual Biography

of nation connected to the needs of industrial society. According

to him, changes in human social organization brought about the
idea of nation. Gellner also provides ideas and analytical tools for
understanding why nations formed in different places, at different
times, and in different ways.
Nations and Nationalism created a framework for thinking about
and studying nationalism. Scholars today who work on nationalism
or related topics will want to explore and expand on Gellner’s
ideas—whether they agree or disagree with them.

Author’s Life
Ernest Gellner was born in 1925 in Paris, France, to Jewish parents
from the Bohemia* region of what was then the country of
Czechoslovakia.* With the rise of Adolf Hitler* and the growing
power of the racist, nationalistic, and extremely right-wing Nazi
party in Germany, Gellner and his family left their home in Prague
in 1939 and resettled in Great Britain. An excellent student, Gellner
began studying philosophy, politics, and economics at Oxford
University’s Balliol College in 1943.
World War II* interrupted his studies. During the last years of
the war, Gellner served in a brigade of Czechoslovakian expatriates
organized and armed by the British Army.To fully grasp Nations and
Nationalism, it is important to consider Gellner’s experience as a Jew
forced to flee his home and his decision to fight in another country’s

15
Macat Analysis of Ernest Gellner’s Nations and Nationalism

military. The rise of Hitler’s Nazi Party and the horrific war waged
by Hitler’s regime demonstrated the power of nationalism to unify
peoples in what Gellner saw as “specially virulent” ways.1 His book
is an attempt to understand the origins and conditions of nationalism
Gellner returned to Oxford in 1945, finishing a master’s degree
with first class honors. From 1949 until 1961, Gellner taught
sociology* at the London School of Economics. He also worked
on his doctoral dissertation in the field of social anthropology*
(roughly, a subfield of anthropology often concerned with things
such as customs and political organization), conducting fieldwork
in North Africa.
After obtaining his doctorate in 1961, Gellner was made a
professor of philosophy and continued teaching at the London
School of Economics. In 1984, he left London for Cambridge
University and taught social anthropology there for the next nine
years. In 1993, he was offered a post in his native Prague at the
Central European University, where he served as the founding
director of the Center for the Study of Nationalism.*
Gellner died in Prague in 1995 at the age of 69.

Author’s Background
One might argue that World War II, which forced Gellner to leave
his homeland, changed his scholarly trajectory. He moved away
from his early philosophical studies and toward sociology and
anthropology. From the 1950s until the time of his death, the main
subject underlying his work focused on sociological structures and
ways of living in the modern world.*
Questions on such topics led Gellner to his study of the origins
and functions of nationalism. His 1964 book, Thought and Change,
tackled the concept of nationalism, but people outside scholarly
circles paid it little attention. Nationalist movements and far-right
parties had been discredited as a result of the war. Moreover, the real

16
 Section 1: Influences; Module 1: The Author and the Historical Context

concern in the immediate decades following World War II was the

Cold War*—the growing political and cultural struggle between
communist* states and liberal democracies.* This tension simmered
until 1991.
In the 1970s, however, a new wave of nationalist sentiment
emerged in Europe. As republicans in Northern Ireland sought
independence from Great Britain, Ulster Nationalism* was reborn.
At the same time, a number of protest movements occurred
involving nationalists from the Basque* and Catalan* regions of
northern Spain.
The 1970s also saw the rise of a number of far-right political
movements throughout Western Europe. In France, a new political
party led by Jean-Marie Le Pen* called the “National Front”
exploded onto the political scene, proclaiming that Muslim*
immigration threatened French identity. Such political struggles
over the idea of nation provided the background for a major
rethinking of nationalism in academic circles. Ernest Gellner played
a significant role in this movement.

NOTES
1 Ernest Gellner, Nations and Nationalism (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers,
1983), 139.

17
MODULE 2
ACADEMIC CONTEXT
KEY POINTS
• Sociology* and anthropology* are both concerned
with the behaviors and actions of human communities
across time.
• Although both academic disciplines focus on human
communities, sociology is generally more interested in
large-scale structures and collective behaviors, while
anthropology uses qualitative* methods to study smaller
groups and interactions.
• Ernest Gellner brought both of these approaches to
Nations and Nationalism, producing an interdisciplinary
book—that is, a book that draws on the aims and
methods of more than one academic discipline.

The Work in its Context

Ernest Gellner’s Nations and Nationalism was published in 1983 as
part of a series entitled “Perspectives on the Past,” which sought to
“discuss problems simply as problems, and not as ‘history’ or ‘politics’
or ‘economics.’”1 Gellner’s book is purposefully interdisciplinary.
He worked with evidence and ideas emanating from several
social-science disciplines, including sociology* (the study of social
behavior), history,* philosophy,* and social anthropology*—a
subfield of anthropology (the study of human beings) that sees
human behavior as embedded in social and historical contexts.
That said, Gellner’s approach is most informed by ideas within
sociology and social anthropology. The academic discipline of
sociology coalesced at the turn of the twentieth century under the
influence of three different thinkers: the German economist and

18
 Section 1: Influences; Module 2: Academic Context

“doesAnnotoutburst of collective emotion in a gathering

merely express the sum total of what
individual feelings share in common, but is something
of a very different order … . It is a product of shared
existence, of actions and reactions called into play
between the consciousnesses of individuals. If it is
echoed in each one of them it is precisely by virtue of
the special energy derived from its collective origins.
Emile Durkheim, The Rules of Sociological Method
”
social theorist Karl Marx,* the French sociologist Emile Durkheim,*
and the German sociologist Max Weber.* One thing these thinkers
had in common is the idea that we can understand human societies
by rationally examining certain structures, collective behaviors, or
common actions.
The academic discipline of sociology differed from scientific
examination of human biology, as well as from psychology’s
interpretations of individual human consciousness. Unlike these
disciplines, sociology pursues knowledge about broad human
social phenomena, usually on a quantitative* basis—that is, by
measuring data.
Anthropology emerged in the late nineteenth century from
practices of natural history*—the study of plants and animals
in their environment. European scholars used anthropology as a
way to describe faraway, usually colonized, lands and peoples to
other Europeans.
Social anthropology combines features of both sociology and
anthropology. Like sociology, it focuses on social phenomena such
as customs, political organization, family and gender relations,
and religion. But it emphasizes qualitative methods—the study of
something’s qualities—and smaller-scale studies.

19
Macat Analysis of Ernest Gellner’s Nations and Nationalism

Social anthropologists conduct extensive field studies and

observations. Like their colleagues in the field of anthropology, they
learn native languages and live among their research subjects. In the
early twentieth century, historically oriented studies gave way to an
emphasis on analyzing contemporary ways of living. Scholars of social
anthropology use long-term ethnographic fieldwork*—observation
conducted in a specific setting—to describe how people live today.

Overview of the Field

Gellner’s work on nationalism* was heavily informed by particular
approaches within both sociology and social anthropology. The text
reflects the influence of the philosophy of positivism,* which dominated
sociology after World War II,*2 and emphasized the importance that an
assertion should be logically or scientifically proven.
Positivism emerged from the writings of the nineteenth-century
French thinkers Auguste Comte* and Emile Durkheim. In the mid-
nineteenth century, Comte laid the groundwork for the academic
discipline that would become sociology. Durkheim, born the
year after Comte died, is generally considered one of the primary
founders of the discipline.
Durkheim explained his positivist approach in his 1894 book,
The Rules of Sociological Method. He hypothesized that observation and
measurement could reveal certain “social facts.”3 A social fact operated
in “general over the whole of a given society whilst having an existence
of its own, independent of its individual manifestations.”4 Gellner’s
investigation of nationalism relies on this insight and method. His
text seeks to explain nationalism as more than simply an intellectual
exercise. He sees it as a structuring factor in modern society.*
Another approach at the time came from the Polish anthropologist
Bronisław Malinowski,* who loomed large within the field of social
anthropology—especially the British School,* with its emphasis on
long-term observation.

20
 Section 1: Influences; Module 2: Academic Context

Scholars consider Malinowski the founder of the functionalist*

school of anthropology, which theorizes that human beings establish
particular institutional mechanisms to satisfy physiological needs5—
and that we may see cultural practices and attitudes as adaptations to
meet these needs. Functionalism in the British school of anthropology
was a reaction to the natural history mode of earlier anthropological
studies. Those earlier anthropologists saw cultural traits as indications
of historical change rather than as being useful in the present.6
As part of his functionalist approach, Malinowski claimed that we
cannot separate our views of history from the contemporary needs of
those attempting to recreate the past. For Malinowski, anthropology
aimed to understand why that view existed for a particular individual.
In essence, he wanted to “grasp the native’s point of view.”7

Academic Influences
Malinowski’s ideas in social anthropology significantly influenced
Gellner’s understanding of nationalism as a modern phenomenon,
For Gellner, Malinowski’s ideas helped explain why nationalists
project and even invent an ancient history for their nation.
Within sociology, Gellner’s positivist approach—his emphasis
on logically and scientifically proving assumptions—relates back to
Durkheim. In addition, his account of modern society relies on the
thought of the German sociologist Max Weber.Weber used the term
“disenchantment” to describe features of modern society such as
bureaucracy and secularization. He also applied it to knowledge of
the world derived from science as opposed to religious belief.8 Weber
argued that modernity* had ushered in an age of disenchantment, and
Gellner found that particularly convincing. More specifically, Gellner
appropriated Weber’s notion of disenchantment when explaining the
difference between industrial and pre-industrial societies.
The French sociologist and Cold War* liberal intellectual
Raymond Aron* also significantly influenced Gellner. Aron is

21
Macat Analysis of Ernest Gellner’s Nations and Nationalism

perhaps best known for his book The Opium of the Intellectuals (1955),
a critique of French Marxist* theory. In particular, Aron’s account of
industrialization* specifically influenced Gellner’s thinking.
Aron described contemporary economic growth and compared
the development of different societies by analyzing a set of hierarchies
and national rivalries. He also described the political forms that various
societies take: state socialism* (a system in which, for example, industry
is not held in private hands), dictatorial regimes (such as that of Nazi*
Germany),and liberal democracies (such as those of America andWestern
Europe, for example).9 By charting the effects of industrialization, Aron
provided fertile ground for Gellner’s own analyses.

NOTES
1 R. I. Moore, preface to Nations and Nationalism by Ernest Gellner (Oxford:
Blackwell Publishers, 1983), viii.
2 George Steinmetz, “American Sociology before and after World War II:
The (Temporary) Setting of a Disciplinary Field,” in Sociology in America:
A History, ed. Craig Calhoun (Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
2007), 356–7.
3 Emile Durkheim, The Rules of Sociological Method, trans. W. D. Halls (New
York: The Free Press, 1982), 52.
4 Durkheim, Sociological Method, 59.
5 Ernest Gellner, “The Political Thought of Bronisław Malinowski,” Current
Anthropology 28, no. 4 (1997): 557–9.
6 Michael Young, “Bronislaw Malinowski,” in International Dictionary of
Anthropologists, ed. Christopher Winters (New York: Garland Publishing,
1991), 445.
7 Quoted in Chris Holdsworth, “Bronislaw Malinowski,” in Oxford
Bibliographies, doi: 10.1093/OBO/9780199766567-0096
8 See Max Weber, “Science as a Vocation,” in From Max Weber: Essays
in Sociology, trans. H. H. Gerth and C. Wright Mills (New York: Oxford
University Press, 1946), 129–56.
9 See Raymond Aron, 18 Lectures on Industrial Society (London: Weidenfeld
& Nicolson, 1967).

22
MODULE 3
THE PROBLEM
KEY POINTS
• The idea of “self-determination,”* the process by which
a nation takes charge of its own affairs, in the twentieth
century provoked scholars to consider how to define a
nation and its origins.
• Some scholars saw the ideology* of nationalism* as
the product of other ideologies. Others saw it as being
produced by a particular form of politics or regime.
• Gellner rejected these stances as inconsistent. He
asserted the economic and social basis of nationalism,
as well as the role of culture and education in creating a
modern nation.

Core Question
Nationalism emerged as a topic of study long before Ernest Gellner
wrote Nations and Nationalism in 1983. World War I* was set in
motion in 1914 by a nationalist act, a Slav* nationalist’s assassination
of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand.* When the war ended four
years later, the Versailles peace negotiations created new “nation
states” based on the idea of “self-determination,” as championed by
US President Woodrow Wilson.*
Wilson based his concept of “self-determination” on the
idea that national groups should have the right to found a state
and govern themselves. The doctrine raised the hopes of groups
around the world that they would be able to create their own
internationally recognized states. Clearly, nationalism had reached
a new level of political legitimacy. So historians and other scholars

23
Macat Analysis of Ernest Gellner’s Nations and Nationalism

“which
Nationalism is primarily a political principle,
holds that the political and the national unit
should be congruent.
”
Ernest Gellner, Nations and Nationalism

set about trying to answer a core question: where did nationalism

come from?
In the 1920s and 1930s, scholars began to answer that question.
The American Carlton Hayes* and the Prague-born scholar Hans
Kohn* were among the most prominent. Both Hayes and Kohn
explained nationalism as an ideology—a system of beliefs founded
on a desire that a particular world view should be instituted.
For Hayes, nationalism was the product of other ideologies
such as liberalism*—a belief emphasizing individual liberty—and
imperialism*1—the political doctrine of empire building and the
dominance of subject people. Kohn, on the other hand, viewed it
as a product of certain types of political regimes. Different regimes
produced certain types of nationalisms. Kohn divided these into
a “Western” liberal and democratic nationalism, and an Eastern
nationalism that was “irrational and pre-enlightened.”2 Still,
nationalism in his studies was “either reduced to a function of
something else (other ideologies, the nation) or … as an incredibly
powerful idea that can shape the world in its image.”3
Another set of scholars of the early twentieth century saw
nationalism as grounded in popular political participation enabled
by a common language. Leftist intellectuals and politicians such as
the Austrian thinker and government minister Otto Bauer* and
the statesman Karl Renner* suggested that nationalism had its
roots in language and communication.4 Their ideas, although not
as influential in shaping leftist politics, had a longer-lasting impact
within the academic world.

24
 Section 1: Influences; Module 3: The Problem

The Participants
World War II,* another conflict sparked as a result of nationalist
sentiment, left some 60 million people—both military and civilian—
dead across Europe, Africa, and Asia. After the war ended, the central
question animating scholars remained very much the same as it had
been at the end of World War I: what are the origins of nationalism?
But there was another question, too: what factors made
nationalism such a powerful force in shaping international politics
and history? Gellner brought many of the techniques and insights
of sociology* and social anthropology* to his attempts to answer
these questions. But he was hardly the only person addressing them.
In 1953, Gellner’s fellow social scientist from Prague, Karl
Deutsch,* published a book called Nationalism and Social
Communication: An Inquiry into the Foundations of Nationality.
Deutsch’s work built on some of the ideas set forth by Otto Bauer.5
Deutsch collected quantitative* data—that is, measureable data such
as statistics—to show how “social communication” affected groups.
Good communication between groups helped build affinities, while
communication difficulties could present barriers. Some scholars
of nationalism, such as the American historian Carlton Hayes,
hesitated to embrace Deutsch’s theories. But Deutsch’s emphasis on
communication played a large role in later theories of nationalism.6
Another intellectual trend sought to understand the pernicious
role of nationalism in the rise and fall of Hitler’s* Germany. In
1960, Elie Kedourie,* a Jewish* émigré like Gellner, wrote an essay
titled simply “Nationalism.” Kedourie wrote of nationalism as a
peculiarly European ideology and problem that “had bred fanaticism
and irrationalism with truly tragic and pernicious consequences for
human society.”7
In his 1964 book, Thought and Change, Gellner resisted Kedourie’s
characterization. Gellner aligned himself more with Deutsch. He
suggested that education, culture, and a shared language were far

25
Macat Analysis of Ernest Gellner’s Nations and Nationalism

more important to the power of nationalism than “ideological

aberration” or “emotional excess.”8

The Contemporary Debate

In the early 1980s, when Gellner published Nations and Nationalism,
several other thinkers brought forward ideas on the same, or a very
similar, topic. The scholar most aligned with Gellner’s point of view
was the British scholar Benedict Anderson.* Anderson published
his book, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of
Nationalism, in 1983, the same year as Gellner’s work.
Like Gellner, Anderson believed that communication held the key
to understanding the origins of nationalism.Anderson advanced the idea
of nationalism as “an imagined community.”This community depended
on a particular configuration of economic and communication
technologies, as well as on the weakening of European empires.
Anderson argued that the printing press and the capitalist market
that engendered it led to a form of “print-capitalism.”* This print-
capitalism standardized and consolidated a given language as a
consequence of the capitalist* market that produced it—capitalism
being the dominant economic, social, and political model in the
West and in many other nations in the developing world.
In effect, according to Anderson, reading the same news in the
same language helped bring together groups of people into an
imagined national community.
The early 1980s also saw the publication of a book by one of
Gellner’s students, Anthony D. Smith.* Smith took a different view
of nationalism from his mentor.9 In fact, his alternative interpretation
of nationalism put him at odds with Gellner’s core thesis. Gellner
viewed nations and nationalism as entirely modern phenomena. But
in his book, The Ethnic Origins of Nations, Smith suggested that nations
have pre-modern* origins. He argued that we can only comprehend
nationalism by looking at its historical ethnic core—and that core has

26
 Section 1: Influences; Module 3: The Problem

roots going back to long before the modern area.

Smith stated, “Nationalists have a vital role to play in the
construction of nations … as political archaeologists rediscovering
and reinterpreting the communal past in order to regenerate the
community.”10 Gellner, however, rejected Smith’s thesis on the
ethnic origins of nationalism, viewing it as nothing more than
myths created for modern circumstances.11

NOTES
1 See Carlton Hayes, Essays on Nationalism (New York: The Macmillan
Company, 1926).
2 Hans Kohn, The Idea of Nationalism (New York: The Macmillan Company,
1944), 457.
3 John Breuilly, The Oxford Handbook of the History of Nationalism (Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2013), 4.
4 See Otto Bauer, The Nationalities Question and Social Democracy, trans.
Joseph O’Donnell (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2000). Karl
Renner’s essay entitled “State and Nation” (1899) has been reproduced
in the Bauer translation. Bauer’s work was originally published in 1907.
5 Karl Deutsch, Nationalism and Social Communication: An Inquiry into the
Foundations of Nationality (New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1953).
6 Carlton J. H. Hayes, “Review of Nationalism and Social Communication:
An Inquiry into the Foundations of Nationality by Karl Deutsch,” The
Catholic Historical Review 39 (1954): 462–3.
7 Paschalis M. Kitromilides, “Elie Kedourie’s Contribution to the Study of
Nationalism,” Middle Eastern Studies 41 (2005): 662. See also Elie
Kedourie, Nationalism (New York: Praeger, 1960).
8 Ernest Gellner, Nations and Nationalism (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers,
1983), 35. See also Brendan O’Leary, “On the Nature of Nationalism: An
Appraisal of Ernest Gellner’s Writings on Nationalism,” British Journal of
Political Science 27 (1997): 193; and Ernest Gellner, Thought and Change
(London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1964).
9 Smith carried out his doctoral research under Gellner’s supervision at
the London School of Economics. Anthony D. Smith, The Ethnic Origins of
Nations (Oxford: Blackwell, 1986).
10 Anthony D. Smith, “Gastronomy or Geology? The Role of Nationalism in
the Reconstruction of Nations,” Nations and Nationalism 1 (1994): 19.
11 For an account of Smith and Gellner’s relationship, see John A. Hall,
Ernest Gellner: An Intellectual Biography (London: Verso, 2010), 326–7.

27
MODULE 4
THE AUTHOR’S CONTRIBUTION
KEY POINTS
• Ernest Gellner argued that nationalism* resulted from the
transformation of agrarian society,* one founded on an
agricultural economy, into an industrial society.*
• Gellner was the first to present a theory and argue
that nationalism was a modern phenomenon with
modern origins.
• While Gellner built on the ideas of earlier scholars about
the nature of society, he synthesized them in a novel way.

Author’s Aims
In Nations and Nationalism, Ernest Gellner aims to prove that
nationalism is a unique phenomenon of the modern world*—that
is, of the period that began roughly towards the end of the fifteenth
century. Gellner argues that nationalism is an unavoidable aspect of
modernity, or the modern period. It emerges when agrarian societies
became industrialized. Nationalism is not, as many had believed,
a primordial facet of human societies. Gellner’s contention is that
industrialization*—and the processes of urbanization* (people moving
from the countryside to the city), bureaucratization* (the building of
the procedures and institutions the modern state requires to function),
and mass education—made nationalism possible.
These viewpoints required Gellner to describe the process of
industrialization and to outline the characteristics of agrarian societies
that had not fostered nationalism. In other words, it was not enough to
show how industrialization facilitated nationalism; he also had to show
why nationalism could not occur within pre-industrial agrarian societies.

28
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
Roderick Murchison to foretell the discovery of gold in Australia, as
we have already explained; and similar knowledge places similar
predictions within the power of other geologists.
We happen to have before us, at this present moment, a geological
map of Nova Scotia. Two such maps have been published, one by
Messrs Alger and Jackson, of Boston, and another by Dr Gesner, late
colonial geologist for the province of New Brunswick. In these maps
the north-western part of the province is skirted by a fringe of old
primary rocks, partly metamorphic, and sometimes fossiliferous, and
resting on a back ground of igneous rocks, which cover, according to
Gesner, the largest portion of this end of the province. Were we
inclined to try our hand at a geological prediction, we should counsel
our friends in the vale of Annapolis to look out for yellow particles
along the course of the Annapolis river, and especially at the mouths
and up the beds of the cross streams that descend into the valley
from the southern highlands.
Nature, indeed, has given the Nova Scotians in this Annapolis
valley a miniature of the more famed valley of the Sacramento. Their
north and south mountains represent respectively the coast range
and the Sierra Nevada of the Sacramento Basin. The tributaries in
both valleys descend chiefly from the hills on the left of the main
rivers. The Sacramento and the Annapolis rivers both terminate in a
lake or basin, and each finally escapes through a narrow chasm in the
coast ridge by which its terminating basin communicates with the
open sea. The Gut of Digby is, in the small, what the opening into the
harbour of San Francisco now called the “Golden Gate” and the
“Narrows” is in the large; and if the Sacramento has its plains of
drifted sand and gravel, barren and unpropitious to the
husbandman, the Annapolis river, besides its other poor lands, on
which only the sweet fern luxuriates, has its celebrated Aylesford
sand plain, or devil’s goose pasture—a broad flat “given up to the
geese, who are so wretched that the foxes won’t eat them, they hurt
their teeth so bad.” Then the south mountains, as we have said,
consist of old primary rocks, such as may carry gold—disturbed,
traversed by dykes, and changed or metamorphosed, as gold-bearing
rocks usually are. Whether quartz veins abound in them we cannot
tell; but the idle boys of Clare, Digby, Clements, Annapolis,
Aylesford, and Horton, may as well keep their eyes about them, and
the woodmen, as they hew and float down the pine logs for the
supply of the Boston market. A few days spent with a “long
Californian Tom,” in rocking the Aylesford and other sands and
gravel-drifts of their beautiful valley, may not prove labour in vain.
What if the rich alluvials of Horton and Cornwallis should hide
beneath more glittering riches, and more suddenly enriching, than
the famed crops of which they so justly boast? Geological
considerations also suggest that the streams which descend from the
northern slopes of the Cobequid Mountains should not be
overlooked. It may well be that the name given to Cap d’Or by the
early French settlers two hundred years ago, may have had its origin
in the real, and not in the imaginary presence of glittering gold.
But to return from this digression. Second, The same facts which
thus enable us to predict or to suggest inquiry, serve also to test the
truth or falsehood of ancient traditions regarding the former
fruitfulness in gold of countries which now possess only the fading
memory of such natural but bygone wealth. Our geological maps
direct us to European countries, in which all the necessary geological
conditions coexist, and in which, were the world still young, a
geologist would stake a fair reputation on the hazard of discovering
gold. But the art of extracting gold from auriferous sands is simple,
and easily practised. It is followed as successfully by the black
barbarians of Africa as by the whitest savages of California. The
longer a country has been inhabited, therefore, by a people among
whom gold is valued, the less abundant the region is likely to be in
profitable washings of gold. The more will it approach to the
condition of Bohemia, where gold prevailed to a great extent, and
was very productive in the middle ages, though it has been long
worked out, and the very localities of its mines forgotten.[7]
Were it to become, for example, a matter of doubtful tradition,
which the historian was inclined to pass by, that in the reign of
Queen Elizabeth three hundred men were employed near Elvan’s
Foot—not far, we believe, from Wanlockhead in Scotland—at a place
called the Gold Scour, in washing for the precious metal, who in a
few summers collected as much as was valued at £100,000; or that
in 1796, ten thousand pounds’ worth of gold was collected in the
alluvial soil of a small district in Wicklow—the geologist would come
to his aid and assure him that the natural history of the
neighbourhood rendered the occurrence of gold probable, and the
traditions, therefore, worthy of reliance.
Third, They explain, also, why it is that, where streams flowing
from one slope of a chain or ridge of mountains are found to yield
rich returns to the gold-seekers, those which descend from the
opposite slope often prove wholly unproductive. In the Ural, rich
mines occur almost solely on the eastern, or Siberian slope of the
great chain. On the western, or European slope, a few inconsiderable
mines only are worked. So, as yet, in the Sierra Nevada in California,
the chief treasures occur in the feeders of the Sacramento and San
Joaquin rivers, which descend from its western side. The eastern
slope, which falls towards the broad arid valley of the Mormons, is as
yet unfamed, and may probably never prove rich in gold. These
circumstances are accounted for by the fact that, in the Ural, the
older rocks, of which we have spoken as being especially gold-
bearing, form the eastern slope of the ridge only, the western flank of
the range being covered for the most part by rocks of a more modern
epoch. The same may be the case also with the Sierra Nevada where
it is still unexplored; and the Utah Lake, though remote, by its
saltness lends probability to this conjecture.
Fourth, and lastly, they make clear the distinction between the
“dry and wet diggins” we read of in our Californian news—why in so
many countries the beds of rivers have been deserted by the gold-
finders, and why the river banks, and even distant dry and elevated
spots, have proved more productive than the channel itself.[8]
Let us attempt to realise for a moment the condition of a country
like California, at the period, not geologically remote, when the gold-
bearing drift was spread over its magnificent valley. The whole
region was covered by the sea to an unknown depth. The snowy
ridge, (Nevada,) and probably the coast ridge, also formed lines of
rocky islands or peaks, which withstood the fury of the waves, and, if
they were covered with ice, the wearing and degrading action also of
the moving glaciers. The spoils of the crumbling rocks sank into the
waters, and were distributed by tides and currents along the bottom
of the valley. The narrow opening through the coast chain, by which
the bay of San Francisco now communicates with the Northern
Pacific, would, at the period we speak of, prevent the debris of the
Nevada rocks from being washed out into the main basin of the
Pacific, and this would enable the metallic, as well as the other spoils
of these rocks, to accumulate in the bottom, and along the slopes of
what is now the valley of California.
By a great physical change the country was lifted out of the sea,
either at once or by successive stages, and it presented then the
appearance of a valley long and wide, covered almost everywhere by
a deep clothing of sands, gravels, and shingles, with which were
intermingled—not without some degree of method, but at various
depths, and in various proportions—the lumps and grains of metallic
gold which had formerly existed in the rocks, of which the sands and
shingles had formed a part.
And now the tiny streams, which had formerly terminated their
short courses in the sea itself, flowed down the mountain slopes,
united their waters in the bottom, and formed large rivers. These
gradually cut their way into the superficial sands, washed them as
the modern gold-washer does in his cradle, and collected, in certain
parts of their beds, the heavier particles of gold which they happened
to meet with in their descent. Hence the golden sands of the
Sacramento and the San Joaquin, and of so many of the rivers
celebrated in ancient story. But the beds of these rivers could never
be the receptacle of all the gold of such a district. They derived nearly
all their wealth from the sands and clays or gravels they had scooped
out in forming their channels; and as these channels occupy only a
small fraction of the surface of the bottoms and slopes of most river
valleys, they could, or were likely to contain, only an equally small
fraction of the mineral wealth of their several regions. The more
ancient waters had distributed the gold throughout the whole drift of
the country. The river, like a “long Tom,” had cradled a small part of
it, and proved its richness. The rest of the drift, if rocked by art,
would prove equally, it might be even more, productive.
It is in this old virgin drift, usually untouched by the river, that the
so-called dry diggings are situated. The reader will readily
understand that, while no estimate can be formed of the quantity of
gold which an entire valley like that of the Sacramento and San
Joaquin, or which wide sandy plains like those of Australia, may
ultimately yield, yet it will require great sagacity to discover, it may
even be that only accident and long lapse of time will reveal, in what
spots and at what depths the gold is most abundantly accumulated,
and where it will best pay the cost of extraction.
We do not now advert to any of the other points connected with
the history of gold on which our geological facts throw light. These
illustrations are sufficient to show how rich in practical inferences
and suggestions geological and chemical science is, in this as in many
other special branches of mineral inquiry.
Nor need we say much in answer to our question,—“Why the
ability to predict, as in the Australian case,” or generally to draw such
conclusions and offer such suggestions and explanations, has
remained so long unanswered, or been so lately acquired? Geology
and chemistry are both young sciences, almost unknown till within a
few years, rapidly advancing, and every day applying themselves
more widely and directly to those subjects which effect the material
prosperity and individual comforts of mankind. Knowledge which
was not possessed before our day, could obviously neither be applied
at all by ancient nations, nor earlier by the moderns.
To the consideration of the absolute extent and probable
productive durability of the gold regions newly brought to light—of
their extent and richness compared with those known in former
times—and of their probable effects on the social and financial
relations of mankind, we shall now turn our attention.

In the preceding part we have explained the circumstances in

which gold occurs—the geological conditions which appear to be
necessary to its occurrence—and where, therefore, we may expect to
find it. But no conditions chemical or geological at present known
are able to indicate—a priori, and apart from personal examination
and trial—in what quantity the precious metal is likely to occur,
either in the living rocks of a gold-bearing district, or in the sands
and gravels by which it may be covered. Yet, next to the fact of the
existence of gold in a country, the quantity in which it is likely to
occur, and the length of time during which a profitable yield may be
obtained, are the questions which most interest, not only individuals
on the spot, but all other countries to which the produce of its mines
is usually sent, or from which adventurers are likely to proceed.
 We have already remarked, that, in nearly all the gold regions
which have been celebrated in past times, their mineral riches have
been for the most part extracted from the drifted sands and gravels
which overspread the surface. We have also drawn attention to the
small amount of skill and intelligence which this extraction requires,
and to the brief time in which such washings may be exhausted even
by ignorant people. Most of our modern gold mines are situated in
similar drifts. We may instance, from among the less generally
known, those of Africa, from which are drawn the supplies that come
to us yearly from the gold coast.

“Of all the African mines those of Bambouk are supposed to be the richest. They
are about thirty miles south of the Senegal river; and the inhabitants are chiefly
occupied in gold-washing during the eight months of dry weather. About two miles
from Natakou is a small round-topped hill, about 300 feet high, the whole of which
is an alluvial formation of sand and pulverised emery, with grains of iron ore and
gold, in lumps, grains, and scales. This hill is worked throughout; and it is said the
richest lumps are found deepest. There are 1200 pits or workings, some 40 feet
deep—but mere holes unplanked. This basin includes at least 500 square miles.
Forty miles north, at the foot of the Tabwara mountains, are the mines of Semayla,
in a hill. This is of quartz slate; and the gold is got by pounding the rock in large
mortars. In the river Semayla are alluvial deposits, containing emery impregnated
with gold. The earth is washed by the women in calabashes. The mine of Nambia is
in another part of the Tabwara mountains, in a hillock worked in pits. The whole
gold district of Bambouk is supposed to extend over 10,000 square miles.
“Close to the Ashantee country is that of the Bunkatoos, who have rich gold
workings, in pits at Bukanti and Kentosoe.”—(Wyld, p. 44.)

From this description we see that all the mines in the Senegal
country are gold-washings, with the exception of those of Semayla, to
which we shall hereafter allude. No skill is required to work them;
and should European constitutions ever permit European nations to
obtain an ascendancy in this part of Africa, such mines may be
effectually exhausted before an opportunity is afforded for the
application of European skill. And so in California and Australia,
should the gold repositories be all of the same easily explored
character, the metal may be suddenly worked out by the hordes of all
classes who have been rushing in; and thus the influence of the
mines may die away after a few brief years of extraordinary
excitement.
When California first became famous, the popular inquiry
everywhere was simply, what amount of immediate profit is likely to
be realised by an industrious adventurer? What individual
temptation, in other words, is there for me or my connections to join
the crowd of eager emigrants?
Passing over the inflated and suspicious recitals which found their
way into American and European journals, such statements as the
following, from trustworthy sources, could not fail to have a most
stimulating effect—

“To give you an instance, however, of the amount of metal in the soil—which I
had from a miner on the spot, three Englishmen bought a claim, 30 feet by 100
feet, for fourteen hundred dollars. It had been twice before bought and sold for
considerable sums, each party who sold it supposing it to be nearly exhausted. In
three weeks the Englishmen paid their fourteen hundred dollars, and cleared
thirteen dollars a-day besides for their trouble. This claim, which is not an
unusually rich one, though it has perhaps been more successfully worked, has
produced in eighteen months over twenty thousand dollars, or five thousand
pounds’ worth of gold.”[9]

Mr Coke is here describing the riches of a spot on the immediate

banks of the river, where circumstances had caused a larger
proportion than usual of that gold to be collected, or thrown together
—which the river, in cutting out its gravelly channel, had separated
or rocked out, as we have described in the previous part of this
article. This rich spot, therefore, is by no means a fair sample of the
country, though, from Mr Coke’s matter-of-fact language, many
might be led to think so. Few spots so small in size could reasonably
be expected to yield so rich a store of gold, though its accumulation
in this spot certainly does imply that the quantity of gold diffused
through the drift of the country may in reality be very great. It may
be so, however, and yet not pay for the labour required to extract it.
That many rich prizes have been obtained by fortunate and steady
men in these diggings, there can be no doubt; and yet, if we ask what
benefit the emigrant diggers, as a whole, have obtained, the
information we possess shows it to be far from encouraging. On this
subject we find, in one of the books before us, the following
information:—[10]

“The inaccessibility of the placers, the diseases, the hardships, and the very
moderate remuneration resulting to the great mass of the miners, were quite
forgotten or omitted—in the communications and reports of a few only excepted.
“A few have made, and will hereafter make, fortunes there, and very many of
those who remain long enough will accumulate something; but the great mass, all
of whom expected to acquire large amounts of gold in a short time, must be
comparatively disappointed. I visited California to dig gold, but chose to abandon
that purpose rather than expose life and health in the mines; and as numbers were
already seeking employment in San Francisco without success, and I had neither
the means nor the inclination to speculate, I resolved to return to my family, and
resume my business at home.”—(P. 207.)

Thousands, we believe, have followed Mr Johnson’s example; and

thousands more would have lived longer and happier, had they been
courageous enough, like him, to return home unsuccessful.

“The estimate in a former chapter of three or four dollars per day per man, as the
average yield during my late visit to the gold regions, has been most extensively
and generally confirmed since that period. Innumerable letters, and persons lately
returned from the diggings, (including successful miners,) now fix the average at
from three to four dollars per day for each digger during the season.”—(P. 243.)
“Thus far the number of successful men may have been one in every hundred. In
this estimate those only should be considered successful who have realized and
safely invested their fortunes. The thousands who thus far have made their
fortunes, but are still immersed in speculations, do not belong as yet to the
foregoing number.”—(P. 245.)

This is applying the just principle, “Nemo ante obitum beatus,”

which is too generally forgotten when the first sudden shower of
riches falls upon ourselves or our neighbours.

“Individual efforts, as a general rule, must prove abortive. So far as my

knowledge enables me to judge, they already have. I do not know of a single
instance of great success at the mines on the part of a single member of the
passengers or ship’s company with whom I came round Cape Horn: of the former
there were a hundred, and of the latter twenty. Many have returned home, who can
tell the truth.”—(P. 249.)

This last extract does not contain Mr Johnson’s own experience,

but that of a physician settled at San Francisco, from whose
communication he quotes; and the same writer adds many
distressing particulars, which we pass by, of the fearful misery to
which those free men, of their own free will, from the thirst of gold,
have cheerfully exposed themselves.
“Quid non mortalia pectora cogis
Auri sacra fames?”

The latest news from Australia contains a repetition of the

Californian experience. A recent Australian and New Zealand
Gazette speaks thus of the gold-hunters—

“In all parts of the colony, labour is quitting its legitimate employment for the
lottery of gold-hunting; and, as a natural consequence, industrial produce is
suffering. Abundant as is the metal, misery among its devotees is quite as
abundant. The haggard look of the unsuccessful, returning disheartened in search
of ordinary labour, is fully equalled by the squalor of the successful, who, the more
they get, appear to labour the harder, amidst filth and deprivation of every kind,
till their wasted frames vie with those of their less lucky neighbours. With all its
results, gold-finding is both a body and soul debasing occupation; and even
amongst so small a body of men, the vices and degradation of California are being
enacted, in spite of all wholesome check imposed by the authorities.”

It is indeed a melancholy reflection that, wherever such mines of

the precious metals have occurred, there misery of the most extreme
kind has speedily been witnessed. The cruelties of the Spanish
conquerors towards the Indian nations of Mexico and Peru, are
familiar to all. They are now brought back fresh upon our memories
by the new fortunes and prospects of the western shores of America.
Yet of such cruelties the Spaniards were not the inventors. They only
imitated in the New, what thousands of years before the same thirst
for gold had led other conquerers to do in the Old World. Diodorus,
after mentioning that, in the confines of Egypt and the neighbouring
countries, there are parts full of gold mines, from which, by the
labour of a vast multitude of people, much gold is dug, adds—

“The kings of Egypt condemn to these mines, not only notorious criminals,
captives in war, persons falsely accused, and those with whom the king is offended,
but also all their kindred and relations. These are sent to this work, either as a
punishment, or that the profit and gain of the king may be increased by their
labours. There are thus infinite numbers thrust into these mines, all bound in
fetters, kept at work night and day, and so strictly guarded that there is no
possibility of their effecting an escape. They are guarded by mercenary soldiers of
various barbarous nations, whose language is foreign to them and to each other; so
that there are no means either of forming conspiracies, or of corrupting those who
are set to watch them. They are kept to incessant work by the overseer, who,
besides, lashes them severely. Not the least care is taken of the bodies of these poor
creatures; they have not a rag to cover their nakedness; and whosoever sees them
must compassionate their melancholy and deplorable condition; for though they
may be sick, or maimed, or lame, no rest, nor any intermission of labour, is allowed
them. Neither the weakness of old age, nor the infirmity of females, excuses any
from that work to which all are driven by blows and cudgels, till at length, borne
down by the intolerable weight of their misery, many fall dead in the midst of their
insufferable labours. Thus these miserable creatures, being destitute of all hope,
expect their future days to be worse than the present, and long for death as more
desirable than life.”[11]

How truly might we apply to gold the words of Horace—

“Te semper anteit sæva necessitas,
Clavos trabaleis et cuneos manu,
Gestans ahena, nec severus
Uncus abest, liquidumque plumbum.”

There was both irony and wisdom in the counsel given by the
Mormon leaders to their followers after their settlement on the Salt
Lake. “The true use of gold is for paving streets, covering houses,
making culinary dishes; and when the saints shall have preached the
gospel, raised grain, and built up cities enough, the Lord will open up
the way for a supply of gold to the perfect satisfaction of his people.”
This kept the mass of their followers from moving to the diggings of
Western California. They remained around the lake “to be healthy
and happy, to raise grain and build cities.”[12]
 But the occurrence of individual disappointment, or misery in
procuring it, will not prevent the gold itself from afterwards
exercising its natural influence upon society when it has been
brought into the markets of the world. When the riches of California
began to arrive, therefore, graver minds, whose thoughts were turned
to the future as much as to the present, inquired, first, how much
gold are these new diggings sending into the markets?—and, second,
how long is this yield likely to last?
1st, To the first of these questions—owing to the numerous
channels along which the gold of California finds its way into
commerce—it seems impossible to obtain more than an approximate
answer. Mr Theodore Johnson (p. 246) estimates the produce for
1848, at 8 million dollars.
1849, from 22 to 37 million dollars.

Or in the latter year, from four to seven millions sterling. It would,

of course, be more in 1850, as it is assumed to be by Mr Wyld, from
whose pamphlet (p. 22) we copy the following table of the estimated
total yield of gold and silver by all the known mines of the world, in
the five years named in the first column:—

Gold. Silver. Total.

1800 £10,250,000
1840 £5,000,000 £6,750,000 11,750,000
1848 7,000,000 6,750,000 13,750,000
1850 17,500,000 7,500,000 25,000,000
1851 22,500,000 7,500,000 30,000,000

Supposing the Russian mines, from which upwards of four

millions’ worth of the gold of 1848 was derived, to have remained
equally productive in 1850 and 1851, this estimate assigns a yield of
£10,000,000 worth of gold to California in 1850, and £15,000,000
to California and Australia together in 1851.
The New York Herald (October 31st, 1851) estimates the produce
of the Californian mines alone, for the years 1850 and 1851, at
 1850, 68,587,000 dollars, or £13,717,000
1851, 75,000,000 „ £15,000,000

These large returns may be exaggerations, but they profess to be

based on the custom-house books, and may be quite as near the truth
as the lower sums of Mr Wyld. But supposing either statement to
contain only a tolerable guess at the truth, it may well induce us
anxiously to inquire, in the second place, how long is such a supply to
continue?
2d, Two different branches of scientific inquiry must be followed
up in order to arrive at anything like a satisfactory answer to this
second question. We must investigate both the probable durability of
the surface diggings, and the probable occurrence of gold in the
native rocks.
Now, the duration of profitable gold-washing in a region depends,
first, on the extent of country over which the gold is spread, and the
universality of its diffusion. Second, on the minimum proportion of
gold in the sands which will pay for washing; and this, again, on the
price of labour.
The valley of the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers, in California,
is 500 miles long, by an average of 50 miles broad; comprehending
an area, therefore, of 25,000 square miles.
We do not know as yet over how much of this the gold is
distributed; nor whether, after the richest and most accessible spots
have been hunted out, and apparently exhausted, the surface of the
country generally will admit of being washed over with a profit. We
cannot draw a conclusion in reference to this point from any of the
statements yet published as to the productiveness of particular spots.
But, at the same time, we ought to bear in mind that deserted spots
may often be returned to several times, and may yield, to more
careful treatment, and more skilful methods in after years, returns of
gold not less considerable than those which were obtained by the
first adventurers. Besides, if we are to believe Mr Theodore Johnson,

“There is no reason to doubt that the whole range of mountains extending from
the cascades in Oregon to the Cordilleras in South America, contain greater or less
deposits of the precious metals; and it is well known that Sonora, the northern
state of Mexico, is equally rich in gold as the adjoining country of Alta California.
The Mexicans have hitherto proved too feeble to resist the warlike Apaches in that
region, consequently its treasure remains comparatively undisturbed.”—(P. 231.)

Passing by Mr Johnson’s opinion about the Oregon mountains,

what he says of Sénora has probably a foundation in truth, and
justifies us in expecting from that region a supply of gold which may
make up for any falling off in the produce of the diggings of
California for many years to come.
The question as to the minimum proportion of gold in the sands of
California, or in those of Australia—the state of society, the workmen
and the tools, in both countries being much the same—which can be
extracted with a profit, or the minimum daily yield which will make
it worth extracting, has scarcely as yet become a practical one.
As a matter of curiosity, however, connected with this subject, it is
interesting to know what is the experience of other gold regions in
these particulars.
In Bohemia, on the lower part of the river Iser, there were formerly
gold-washings. “The sand does not now yield more than one grain of
gold in a hundredweight; and it is supposed that so much is not
regularly to be obtained. There are at present no people searching for
gold, and there have been none for several centuries.”[13] This,
therefore, may be considered less than the minimum proportion
which will enable washers to live even in that cheap country. In the
famed gold country of Minas Geraes, in Brazil, where gangs of slaves
are employed in washing, the net annual amount of gold extracted
seems to be little more than £4 a-head; and in Columbia, where
provisions are dearer, “a mine, which employs sixty slaves, and
produces 20 lb. of gold of 18 carats annually, is considered a good
estate.”[14]
These also approach so near to the unprofitable point, that gold-
washing, where possible, has long been gradually giving way, in that
country, to the cultivation of sugar and other agricultural
productions.
In regard to Siberia, Rose, in his account of his visit to the mines of
the Ural and the Altai, gives the results of numerous determinations
of the proportion of gold in the sands which are considered worth
washing at the various places he visited. Thus on the Altai, at
Katharinenburg, near Beresowsk, and at Neiwinskoi, near Neujansk,
and at Wiluyskoi, near Nischni Tagilsk, the proportions of gold in
100 poods[15] of sand, were respectively—

Katharinenburg, 1.1 to 2.5, or an average of 1.3 solotniks.

Neiwinskoi, ½ solotnik.
Wiluyskoi, 1½ solotnik.

These are respectively 72, 26, and 80 troy grains to the ton of
sand; and although the proportion of 26 grains to the ton is little
more than is found unworth the extraction from the sands of the
Iser, and implies that nearly 19 tons of sand must be washed to
obtain one troy ounce of gold, yet it is found that this washing can in
Siberia be carried on with a profit.
In the gold-washings of the Eastern slopes of the Ural, near Miask,
the average of fourteen mines in 1829 was about 1⅛ solotniks to the
100 poods, or 60 grains to the ton of sand. The productive layers
varied in thickness, from 2 to 10 feet, and were covered by an equally
variable thickness of sand and gravel, which was too poor in gold to
pay for washing.[16]
We have no data, as yet, from which to judge of the richness of the
Californian and Australian sands, compared with those of Siberia.
And, if we had, no safe conclusion could be drawn from them as to
the prolonged productiveness of the mines, in consequence of
another interesting circumstance, which the prosecution of the
Uralian mines has brought to light. It is in every country the case
that the richest sands are first washed out, and thus a gradual falling
off in every locality takes place, till spot by spot the whole country is
deserted by the washers. We give an example of this falling off in four
of the Ural mines in five successive years. The yield of gold is in
solotniks from the 100 poods of sand—
 I. II. III. IV.
1825, 2.28 sol. 1.56 sol. 5.64 sol.
1826, 1.43 „ 0.83 „ 2.46 „ 7.28 sol.
1827, 0.64 „ 0.77 „ 1.43 „ 5.0 „
1828, 0.58 „ 0.29 „ 1.92 „ 3.52 „

As all the Ural diggings exhibit this kind of falling off, it has been
anticipated, from time to time, that the general and total yield of gold
by the Siberian mines would speedily diminish. But so far have these
expectations been disappointed, that the produce has constantly
increased from 1829 until now. On an average of the last five years,
the quantity of gold yielded by the Russian, and chiefly by the
Siberian mines, is now greater than that obtained from the South
American gold mines in their richest days.[17]
While, therefore, it is certain that the new American and
Australian diggings will individually, or on each spot, become poorer
year by year, yet, as in Siberia, the extension of the search, and the
employment of improved methods, may not only keep up the yield
for a long period of years, but may augment the yearly supply even
beyond what it has yet been.
But while so much uncertainty attends the consideration of the
extent, richness, and durability of mines situated in the gold-bearing
sands and gravels, something more precise and definite can be
arrived at in regard to the gold-bearing rocks. In nearly all the gold
countries of past times, the chief extraction of the precious metal, as
we have said, has been from the drifted sands. It is so also now in
Siberia, and it was naturally expected that the same would be the
case in California. And as other countries had for a time yielded
largely, and then become exhausted, so it was predicted of this new
region, and it was too hastily asserted that the increasing thousands
of diggers who were employed upon its sands must render pre-
eminently shortlived its gold-bearing capability. This opinion was
based upon the two considerations—first, that there is no source of
reproduction for these golden sands, inasmuch as it is only in very
rare cases that existing rivers have brought down from native rocks
the metallic particles which give their value to the sands and gravels
through which they flow—and second, that no available quantity of
gold was likely to be found in any living rocks.
But in respect of the living rocks, two circumstances have been
found to coexist in California, which have not been observed in any
region of gold-washings hitherto explored, and which are likely to
have much effect on the special question we are now considering.
These two circumstances are the occurrence of numerous and, it is
said, extensive deposits of the precious metals in the solid quartz
veins among the spurs of the Sierra Nevada, and of apparently
inexhaustible beds of the ores of quicksilver.
The discovery of gold in the native rock was by no means a novelty.
The ancient Egyptians possessed mines in the Sahara and other
neighbouring mountains. “This soil,” says Diodorus, “is naturally
black; but in the body of the earth there are many veins shining with
white marble, (quartz?) and glittering with all sorts of bright metals,
out of which those appointed to be overseers cause the gold to be dug
by the labourers—a vast multitude of people.”[18]
At Altenberg also, in Bohemia, in the middle ages, the mixed
metals (gold and silver) were found in beds of gneiss;[19] and, at
present, in the Ural and Altai, a small portion of the gold obtained is
extracted from quartz veins, which penetrate the granite and other
rocks; but these and other cases, ancient and modern, though not
forgotten, were not considered of consequence enough to justify the
expectation of finding gold-bearing rocks of any consequence in
California. It is to another circumstance that we owe the so early
discovery of such rocks in this new country, and, as in so many other
instances, to a class of men ignorant of what history relates in regard
to other regions.
As early as 1824, the inner country of North Carolina was
discovered to be productive of gold. The amount extracted in that
year was only 6000 dollars, but it had reached in 1829 to 128,000
dollars. The washings were extended both east and west, and finally
it was made out that a gold region girdles the northern part of
Virginia, the two Carolinas, and Georgia. This region is situated
towards the foot of the mountains, and where the igneous rocks
begin to disturb and penetrate the primary stratified deposits. As the
sands became poorer in this region, the ardent miners had followed
up their stream-washings to the parent rock, and in veins of rusty
quartz had discovered grains and scales of native gold. To obtain
these, like the Africans at Semayla, they blasted, crushed, and
washed the rock.
Now, among the first who, fired by fresher hopes, pushed to the
new treasure-house in California, came the experienced gold-seekers
from the Carolinian borders. Following the gold trail into the gulches
and ravines of the Snowy ridge, some of them were able to fix their
trained eyes on quartz veins such as they had seen at home, and,
scattered through the solid rock, to detect sparkling grains of gold
which might long have escaped less practised observers. And through
the same men, skilled in the fashion and use of the machinery found
best and simplest for crushing and separating the gold, the necessary
apparatus was speedily obtained and set to work to prove the
richness of the new deposits. This richness may be judged of by the
following statements:—

“Some of the chief quartz workings are in Nevada and Mariposa Counties, but
the best known are on the rancho or large estate bought by Colonel Fremont from
Alvarado, the Mexican governor. They are those of Mariposa, Agua Fria, Nouveau
Monde, West Mariposa, and Ave Maria—the first leased by an American company,
the third by a French, and the others by English companies. Some of the quartz has
been assayed for £7000 in the ton of rock. A Mariposa specimen was in the Great
Exhibition.
“The Agua Fria mine was surveyed and examined by Captain W. A. Jackson, the
well-known engineer of Virginia, U.S., in October 1850, for which purpose
openings were made by a cross-cut of sufficient depth to test the size of the vein
and the richness of the ore. The vein appears to be of a nearly uniform thickness—
of from three and a half to four and a half feet—and its direction a few points to the
north of east; the inclination of the vein being 45°. Of the ore, some specimens
were transmitted to the United States Mint in January 1851; and the report of the
assays then made, showed that 277 lb. of ore produced 173 oz. of gold—value 3222
dollars, or upwards of £650 sterling; being at the rate of £5256 a ton.
“The contents of the vein running through the property, which is about 600 feet
in length, and crops out on a hill rising about 150 to 200 feet above the level of the
Agua Fria Creek, is estimated at about 18,000 tons of ore to the water level only;
and how far it may descend below that, is not at present known.
“The West Mariposa mine, under Colonel Fremont’s lease, has a vein of quartz
which runs the whole length of the allotment, averages six feet in thickness, and
has been opened in several places. The assay of Messrs Johnson and Mathey states
that a poor specimen of 11 oz. 9 dwt. 18 grains, produced of gold 2 dwt. 17 grains,
which would give £1347 per ton; and a rich specimen, weighing 17 oz. 12 dwt. gave
3 oz. 15 dwt. 9 grains, being at the rate of £24,482 per ton.”—(Wyld, pp. 36–39.)

The nature and durability of the influence which the discovery and
working of these rich veins is likely to have, depends upon their
requiring capital, and upon their being in the hands of a limited
number of adventurers. In consequence of this they cannot be
suddenly exhausted, but may continue to yield a constant supply for
an indefinite number of years.
In connection with the durability of this supply from the quartz
veins—besides the unsettled question as to the actual number and
extent of such veins which further exploration will make out—there
is the additional question as to how deep these veins will prove rich
in gold. Our readers are probably aware that what are called veins
are walls, more or less upright, which rise up from an unknown
depth through the beds of rock which we have described as overlying
each other like the leaves of a book. This wall generally consists of a
different material from that of which the rocks themselves consist,
and, where a cliff occurs, penetrated by such veins, can readily be
distinguished by its colour from the rocks through which it passes.
Now, when these veins contain metallic minerals, it has been long
observed that, in descending from the surface, the mineral value of
the vein undergoes important alterations. Some are rich immediately
under the surface of the ground; others do not become so till a
considerable depth is reached; while in others, again, the kind of
mineral changes altogether as we descend. In Hungary the richest
minerals are met with at a depth of eighty or a hundred fathoms. In
Transylvania, veins of gold, in descending, become degraded into
veins of lead. In Cornwall, some of the copper veins increase in
richness the greater the depth to which the mine is carried; while
others, which have yielded copper near the surface, have gradually
become rich in tin as the depth increased.[20]
Now, in regard to the auriferous quartz veins, it is the result of past
experience that they are often rich in the upper part, but become
poorer as the explorations are deepened, and soon cease to pay the
expense of working. In this respect it is just possible that the
Californian veins may not agree with those of the Ural and of other
regions, though this is a point which the lapse of years only can
settle. Two things, however, are in favour of the greater yield of the
Californian veins than those of other countries in past times—that
they will be explored by a people who abound in capital, in
engineering skill, and in energy, and that it is now ascertained that
veins may be profitably rich in gold, though the particles are too
small to be discerned by the naked eye. Thus, while all the
explorations will be made with skill and economy, many veins will be
mined into, which in other countries have been passed over with
neglect; and the extraction of gold from all—but especially from the
poorer sands and veins—will be aided by the second circumstance to
which we have adverted as peculiar to California, the possession of
vast stores of quicksilver.

“The most important, if not the most valuable, of the mineral products of this
wonderful country, is its quicksilver. The localities of several mines of this metal
are already known, but the richest yet discovered is the one called Forbes’s mines,
about sixty miles from San Francisco, near San José. Originally discovered and
denounced, according to the Mexican laws then in force, it fell under the
commercial management of Forbes of Tepic, who also has some interest in it. The
original owner of the property on which it is situated, endeavoured to set aside the
validity of the denouncement; but whether on tenable grounds or otherwise, I
know not. At this mine, by the employment of a small number of labourers, and
two common iron kettles for smelting, they have already sold quicksilver to the
amount of 200,000 dollars, and have now some two hundred tons of ore awaiting
the smelting process. The cinnabar is said to yield from sixty to eighty per cent of
pure metal, and there is no doubt that its average product reaches fifty per cent.
The effect of these immensely rich deposits of quicksilver, upon the wealth and
commerce of the world, can scarcely be too highly estimated, provided they are
kept from the clutches of the great monopolists. Not only will its present usefulness
in the arts be indefinitely extended and increased by new discoveries of science,
but the extensive mines of gold and silver in Mexico, Chili, and Peru, hitherto
unproductive, will now be made available by its application.”—(Johnson’s Sights
in the Gold Region, p. 201.)

By mere washing with water, it is impossible to extract the finer

particles and scales of gold either from the natural sand or from the
pounded rock. But an admixture and agitation with quicksilver licks
up and dissolves every shining speck, and carries it, with the fluid
metal, to the bottom of the vessel. The amalgam, as it is called, of
gold and quicksilver thus obtained, when distilled in a close vessel,
yields up its quicksilver again with little loss, and leaves the pure
gold behind. For the perfect extraction of the gold, therefore, from its
ores, quicksilver is absolutely necessary, and it can be performed
most cheaply where the latter metal is cheapest and most abundant.
Hence the mineral conditions of California seem specially fitted to
make it an exception to all gold countries heretofore investigated, or
of which we have any detailed accounts. They promise it the ability to
supply a large export of gold, probably long after the remunerative
freshness of the diggings, properly so called, whether wet or dry,
shall have been worn off.
But both the actual yearly produce of gold, and the probable
permanence of the supply, have been greatly increased by the still
more recent discoveries in Australia. A wider field has been opened
up here for speculation and adventure than North-Western America
in its best days ever presented. We have already adverted to the
circumstances which preceded and attended the discovery of gold in
this country, and new research seems daily to add to the number of
districts over which the precious metal is spread. It is impossible,
however, even to guess over how much of this vast country the gold
field may extend, and of richness enough to make washing possible
and profitable. The basin of the river Murray, in the feeders of which
gold has been found in very many places, has a mean length from
north to south of 1400 miles, and a breadth of 400—comprising an
area of from 500,000 to 600,000 square miles. This is four times the
area of California, and five times that of the British Islands; but
whether the gold is generally diffused over this wide area, or whether
it is confined to particular and limited localities, there has not as yet
been time to ascertain.
It is chiefly in the head waters or feeders of the greater streams
which flow through this vast basin that the metal has hitherto been
met with; but the peculiar physical character of the creeks, and of the
climate in these regions, suggests the probability that the search will
be profitably extended downwards along the entire course of the
larger rivers. Every reader of Australian tours and travels is aware of
the deep and sudden floods to which the great rivers of the country
are subject, and of the disastrous inundations to which the banks of
the river Murray are liable. The lesser creeks or feeders of this river,
in which the washings are now prosecuted, are liable to similar