What are the origins of nationalism and why is it capable of arousing such intense emotions? In this major study, Azar Gat counters the prevailing fashionable theories according to which nations and nationalism are modern and contrived or 'invented'. He sweeps across history and around the globe to reveal that ethnicity has always been highly political and that nations and national states have existed since the beginning of statehood millennia ago. He traces the deep roots of ethnicity and nationalism in human nature, showing how culture fits into human evolution from as early as our aboriginal condition and, in conjunction with kinship, defines ethnicity and ethnic allegiances. From the rise of states and empires to the present day, this book sheds new light on the explosive nature of ethnicity and nationalism, as well as on their more liberating and altruistic roles in forging identity and solidarity.

本书是由加藤周一先生的“日本杂种文化论”和“日本现代模式论”为主构成，所论涉及广泛的文化范畴。它通过政治文化、哲学思想、社会、历史、文学艺术诸领域，透视病态的社会和病态的现代，解剖日本社会和文化的不合理现象。

《 研究》为中央民族大学《985工程》中国少数民族语言文化教育边疆史地研究创新基地项目子项目——达力扎布教授主持《中国边疆民族地区历史与地東研究》项目的课题之一——《 研究》的最终成果。

本书主要内容包括：战后西方蒙古学的发展阶段、西方曾经存在过的蒙古学中心、西方蒙古学学术研究和教学工作现状、西方的蒙古学会。

《论绅权》之后删除胡庆钧《两种权力夹缝中的保长》、《从保长到乡约》两篇。