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5 English before they were British

Abstract

This chapter considers the imaginative effect of the post-war experience and identifies the anxieties of Englishness, commenting on historian George Kitson Clark's argument that the English had been English before they were British and that English identity could be found behind or beyond the institutions of the United Kingdom. It also discusses a recent interpretation of British history indicating that the diminishing authority of the old institutions has indeed provoked the present re-assessment of Englishness. The chapter argues that the question of English identity today is bound up with the new complexity of British governance and with the new uncertainty of how England fits into it. It describes several anxieties of English, which include the anxiety of absence, the anxiety of silence and the anxiety of anticipation.

Abstract

This chapter considers the imaginative effect of the post-war experience and identifies the anxieties of Englishness, commenting on historian George Kitson Clark's argument that the English had been English before they were British and that English identity could be found behind or beyond the institutions of the United Kingdom. It also discusses a recent interpretation of British history indicating that the diminishing authority of the old institutions has indeed provoked the present re-assessment of Englishness. The chapter argues that the question of English identity today is bound up with the new complexity of British governance and with the new uncertainty of how England fits into it. It describes several anxieties of English, which include the anxiety of absence, the anxiety of silence and the anxiety of anticipation.

Chapters in this book

  1. Front matter i
  2. Contents v
  3. Preface and acknowledgements vii
  4. 1 Put out more flags 1
  5. Part I Legends of Englishness
  6. 2 An absorptive patria 19
  7. 3 The English idiom 42
  8. 4 Dead centre of inertia 62
  9. Part II Anxieties of Englishness
  10. 5 English before they were British 83
  11. 6 England.co.uk 101
  12. 7 Slow alchemy of centuries 121
  13. Part III Locations of Englishness
  14. 8 Region 143
  15. 9 Europe 163
  16. 10 England 183
  17. 11 Put out even more flags 203
  18. References 215
  19. Index 249
The politics of Englishness
This chapter is in the book The politics of Englishness
https://doi.org/10.7765/9781847792044.00010

Chapters in this book

  1. Front matter i
  2. Contents v
  3. Preface and acknowledgements vii
  4. 1 Put out more flags 1
  5. Part I Legends of Englishness
  6. 2 An absorptive patria 19
  7. 3 The English idiom 42
  8. 4 Dead centre of inertia 62
  9. Part II Anxieties of Englishness
  10. 5 English before they were British 83
  11. 6 England.co.uk 101
  12. 7 Slow alchemy of centuries 121
  13. Part III Locations of Englishness
  14. 8 Region 143
  15. 9 Europe 163
  16. 10 England 183
  17. 11 Put out even more flags 203
  18. References 215
  19. Index 249
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