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
... , Scotland, Wales and Ireland. Paul Ward is senior lecturer in Modern British History at the University of Huddersfield. He is the author of Red Flag and Union Jack: Englishness, Patriotism and the British Left, 1881-1924 (1988).
... the most important contribution made by all three has been to make my life very happy. Love to them all. Huddersfield, September 2003 Abbreviations BUF British Union of Fascists CPGB Communist Party of x Acknowledgements.
Paul Ward. Abbreviations. BUF British Union of Fascists CPGB Communist Party of Great Britain CSU Cymric Suffrage Union EEC European Economic Community FA Football Association GAA Gaelic Athletic Association IRA Irish Republican Army JLB ...
... Union, pluralism (of sorts) failed, with bloodshed as a consequence, in the 1990s. After 1945, decolonisation in Africa and Asia saw the foundation of new nations and national identities: sometimes formed against the backdrop of war, as ...
... Union of 1800, if not before with the union of England and Scotland in 1707. In this view, there was only a transient and unstable sense of a British national identity, and it has recently been argued by Christopher Harvie that there ...
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 |