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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... Historians such as Hugh Kearney, Keith Robbins, Jeremy Black and Norman Davies have been seeking to popularise a new history that fully takes account of the interrelationships between the separate parts of the British Isles or 'Atlantic ...
... historians are better served by books that consider the formation of Britishness in the medieval and early modern periods, which look for ideas that sought to unite the kingdom rather than tear it apart. This has been a major ...
... historian would say that, wouldn't he. It is worth therefore coming clean in advance. I was born in the south-east of England, to parents born in England (one in east London, the other in Newcastle upon Tyne). Until I was thirty-five I ...
... historians in many ways, but in parts it is based on archival research of printed and non-printed sources, on diaries, letters, newspapers, pamphlets and contemporary books. It uses quantitative sources where they have been available ...
... historians suggest that the outpourings of public imperialist enthusiasm came from the middle class, who were denied ... historian P. J. Marshall. He argues that the experience of imperialism did not divert the British but 'seems to have ...
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 |