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
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... Britons, and its passing has removed that particular sense of commonality. It might also be suggested that the election of Margaret Thatcher as prime minister in 1979 was in part a response to the crisis of the 1970s of which the 'break ...
... Britons at the centre of the story, as in The Jewel in the Crown (14 parts, 1984), The Far Pavilions (6 parts, 1984) and A Passage to India (1984). Even Gandhi (1982) enabled many of the British to congratulate themselves on their own ...
... Britons had experienced divorce, and it might have been presumed that the royal family might have been able to present itself as a modern family experiencing modern problems, but it became apparent that the royal family and court were ...
... Britons. The sense of Empire and monarch as central to the national identity spread widely through the population, through the class system, to women as well as men, and to the far reaches of the United Kingdom. Of course, much of this ...
... Britons. Following Britain's poor showing in the Boer War, in part owing to the poor physical condition of potential military recruits, the 'endowment of motherhood' for imperial purposes was widely supported. During the First World War ...
Contents
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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 |