Benedict Anderson (1936-2015), who was Emeritus Professor of International Studies at Cornell University, was a noted political scientist, keen analyst of modern nationalism and the nature of multiethnic empires. An internationally renowned essayist, his numerous publications include "The Specter of Comparisons" (1998), "Language and Power" (1990) and, above all, the classic "Imagined Communities. Reflections on the origin and diffusion of nationalism "(1993).