Cornell Professor Emeritus Benedict Anderson is best known for his book, Imagined Communities, which is based on his theory of the same name.

Anderson was born in Kunming, China, to an Anglo-Irish father, James O'Gorman Anderson, and an English mother, Veronica Anderson. His father was involved in Irish nationalistic activities. The family relocated to California in the United States in 1941, when Anderson was five years old. He spent most of his childhood and youth there, but later moved to Ireland, then to England, where he studied at the University of Cambridge. He completed graduate work in political science.

His graduate work on twentieth-century Indonesian politics was so insightful and critical that after his doctoral research there he was banned from visiting that nation. When a communist staged a successful coup in Indonesia, Anderson published three studies, arguing that "discontented army officers, rather than Communists, were responsible for [the] coup."

After he left Indonesia he traveled to Thailand, where he spent a few years. Upon his return he began teaching at Cornell University. He is currently the director of the Modern Indonesia Program and the Aaron L. Binekorb professor of International Studies.His best-known work, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism explains his Marxist-based theory that nationalism is caused by the creation of an imagined community, which comes about through movements against absolute rule and monarchy, the implementation of a capitalist system, which is spurred on by print culture.

Anderson has stated that his purpose in writing the book is to provide a historical background for the emergence of nationalism, how it developed and evolved, and how it was received by various groups of people. Anderson's theory argues that the uses of print culture and capitalism helped to inform a given nation in the creation of how its members viewed it. The widespread availability of various types of print culture created a web of communication, allowing even very diverse members of a society to learn to know one another. The book also provides discussions on the territorialization of religion and the decline of the bonds of kinship.