Britishness since 1870What does it mean to be British? It is now recognized that being British is not innate, static or permanent, but that national identities within Britain are constantly constructed and reconstructed. Britishness since 1870 examines this definition and redefinition of the British national identity since the 1870s. Paul Ward argues that British national identity is a resilient force, and looks at how Britishness has adapted to changing circumstances. Taking a thematic approach, Britishness since 1870 examines the forces that have contributed to a sense of Britishness, and considers how Britishness has been mediated by other identities such as class, gender, region, ethnicity and the sense of belonging to England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. |
From inside the book
... Queen Victoria the title of Empress of India, and 1953, the monarchy was fundamentally entwined with the idea and reality of the British Empire. They were seen together as forming two basic foundations upon which Britishness could be ...
... (Queen Victoria distributed £ 12, 535 to 330 charities in 1882), but also provided patronage which encouraged citizens to charitable endeavours. In 1887 £80,000 was contributed by 2 million women as a 'Women's Jubilee Offering' to the Queen ...
... Queen Alexandra in recognition of her husband having raised a substantial amount of money for blinded soldiers: 'it's not everyone who can claim the distinction of having received a letter of gratitude from a Queen! and written in ...
... Queen Mary established her Needlework Guild to encourage women to sew for their husbands, fathers, brothers and boyfriends serving in the armed forces. The royal parents also shared in the anxiety over their sons, who served in the navy ...
... Queen Victoria was lifted, and the theme of the two enormously popular films made by Herbert Wilcox, Victoria the Great (1937) and Sixty Glorious Years (1938), was exactly the role of the monarch in a national family extending ...
Contents
14 | |
18 | |
22 | |
28 | |
31 | |
37 | |
38 | |
39 | |
Countervailing currents | 96 |
The First World War | 98 |
Between the wars | 100 |
British Fascism and Communism | 101 |
Patriotism and politics in the peoples war | 105 |
The politics of European identity | 108 |
A new way of being British ethnicity and Britishness | 113 |
Continuities and varieties before 1945 | 116 |
Women in Ireland Scotland and Wales | 42 |
The impact of the Great War | 44 |
Gender and Britishness in the Second World War | 47 |
Gender race and home in postwar Britain | 50 |
Rural urban and regional Britishness | 54 |
Finding the core of the nation | 55 |
Regional identities | 66 |
Spare time | 73 |
Sport nation and Empire | 74 |
Sport and nation in Scotland Wales and Ireland | 76 |
Regional and local identities in British sport | 80 |
Race sport and identity | 82 |
Discordant voices | 84 |
Going on holiday | 85 |
Resisting the Americanisation of culture | 89 |
Politicians parties and national identity | 93 |
The Second World War and the national community | 123 |
Numbers and the other in affluent Britain | 125 |
the politics of exclusion | 127 |
Black and Asian identities in the UK | 135 |
Outer Britain | 141 |
Holding together or pulling apart? | 142 |
Wales | 143 |
Scotland | 149 |
Ireland and Northern Ireland | 157 |
The end of Britain? | 168 |
Conclusion | 170 |
Notes | 174 |
Bibliography | 211 |
Index | 229 |