Prasenjit Duara is a scholar whose writing which I find nothing short of inspirational. That is no small feat for academic history writing, I assure you. Reading his work is difficult and sometimes confusing, but there are moments when he writes with an eloquence and lucidity which I can only hope to reproduce in my own future writing on history. Look below at his description of the relationship between nations and time,
“History is not only about linear evolution; it is also about timelessness. To be recognizable as the subject of history, the core of the nation has to be unaffected by the passage of time. This core often refers to the unity of a people and its territory. In the nation’s evolution there are historical vicissitudes during which a people may be driven out of its territory or enslaved or become separated and lose consciousness of its original unity. But the historical destiny of the nation lies in the fulfillment or restoration of this unity and sovereignty of a people. National history is fully teleological in that its ends are to be found in its beginnings.” from “The Regime of Authenticity: Timelessness, Gender, and National History in Modern China” in Chow, Kai-wing et al. ed. Constructing Nationhood in Modern East Asia (University of Michigan Press, 2001), 360