The Identity of England [Hardcover]

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. 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. 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 Collsis a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Economic and Social History, University of Leicester.