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The English are now in need of a new sense of home and belonging, and a re-assessment of who they are. This is a history of who they were, with present needs in mind. It begins by considering how the English state created an English nation which from very early days refused to see itself simply as the state's creature. There was more to being English than paying taxes and obeying a king. It considers also how that nation survived shattering revolutions in industry,
urban living and global conflict while at the same time retaining a softer, more humane vision of themselves and their land. There was more to living in England than work and wages, there was more to
running an empire than expoliting it. From this rich store of history and possibility, the book connects how the meaning of England has changed and changed again in the past, with how it is changing now in the future.
The English are now in need of a new sense of home and belonging, and a re-assessment of who they are. This is a history of who they were, with present needs in mind. It begins by considering how the English state created an English nation which from very early days refused to see itself simply as the state's creature. There was more to being English than paying taxes and obeying a king. It considers also how that nation survived shattering revolutions in industry,
urban living and global conflict while at the same time retaining a softer, more humane vision of themselves and their land. There was more to living in England than work and wages, there was more to
running an empire than expoliting it. From this rich store of history and possibility, the book connects how the meaning of England has changed and changed again in the past, with how it is changing now in the future.
Introduction
Building the Nation
1: The Law Becomes You
2: Uniting the Kingdoms
3: Constituting the Modern Nation
Extending the State
4: Modern Gentlemanly Progress
5: The Nation over Itself
6: Colonials
7: Women and Workers
8: Loyalties
Post-Imperial Reformation
9: Forward March Halted
10: Imagined Nation
11: Reconstituting the Nation
Bridgehead
Building the Homeland
12: England as a Garden
13: Wasteland
14: Island
15: Natives
16: Journeys
Absorbing the People
17: Celts
18: National Properties
19: Common People
20: Left-over People
England Now
21: Anarchy in the UK?
22: Thinking with England
Conclusion
Select Bibliography
Index
Robert Colls is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Economic and Social History, University of Leicester.
... a highly focused assessment of our national self ... Colls is strong on the economic and political imperatives at play ... The discussion is coherent and well documented and the concluding section, "England Now", is pretty chilling. Tribune Of the many books that have come out about the question of England over the past few years, Robert Coll's Identity of England brings together serious scholarship, the pulse of the personal and a passion for inquiry into this compelling subject. Melvyn Bragg, Books of the Year, Observer Review, December 2002 ... one of the finest books on this complex and difficult subject it is possible to imagine. Simon Heffer, Literary Review Provocatively argued and pungently expressed... A crucial issue [and] a great book ... It is thought-provoking, sophisticated, drawing on a wide range of intellectual resources, and offering hard-edged analysis. Stephen Howe, The Independent Magazine A totally fascinating sweep across the subject. Melvyn Bragg, The Good Book Guide Colls' probing new study shows that the English have been reinventing themselves all along ... A fine and engagingly personal book. John Gardiner, BBC History Magazine, October 2002
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