British Identities before Nationalism
British Identities before Nationalism
Inspired by debates among political scientists over the strength and depth of the pre-modern roots of nationalism, this study attempts to gauge the status of ethnic identities in an era whose dominant loyalties and modes of political argument were confessional, institutional and juridical. Colin Kidd's point of departure is the widely shared orthodox belief that the whole world had been peopled by the offspring of Noah. In addition, Kidd probes inconsistencies in national myths of origin and ancient constitutional claims, and considers points of contact which existed in the early modern era between ethnic identities which are now viewed as antithetical, including those of Celts and Saxons. He also argues that Gothicism qualified the notorious Francophobia of eighteenth-century Britons. A wide-ranging example of the new British history, this study draws upon evidence from England, Scotland, Ireland and America, while remaining alert to European comparisons and influences.
- Offers a comprehensive coverage of ethnic and national identities in the British world (including Ireland and America) 1600–1790
- Constitutes a major response to Linda Colley's Britons (1992) revising its approach to British attitudes to France and the Continent
- Includes an original exploration of belief in the veracity of Noah's story in Genesis and its consequences for British identities
Reviews & endorsements
'… written with elegance … enormously informative and compelling reading.' The Times Literary Supplement
'They will find some fascinating lessons in Colin's Kidd's book on British identities in the 17th and 18th centuries.' The Weekend Review
'Kidd's effortlessly brilliant research and readable prose, in which are preserved the empirical and discursive elements of the historical enterprise at its best.' H-Net Book Review
'British Identities before Nationalism is an excellent synthesis of existing secondary material on historiography, national myths and the whole debate over the beginnings of nationalism.' Eighteenth-Century Ireland
Product details
March 2006Paperback
9780521024532
312 pages
229 × 153 × 15 mm
0.376kg
Available
Table of Contents
- Acknowledgements
- 1. Introduction
- Part I. Theological Contexts:
- 2. Prologue: the mosaic foundations of early modern British identity
- 3. Ethnic theology and British identities
- Part II. The Three Kingdoms:
- 4. Whose ancient constitution? Ethnicity and the English past, 1600–c. 1790
- 5. Britons, Saxons and the Anglican quest for legitimacy
- 6. The Gaelic dilemma in early modern Scottish political culture
- 7. The weave of Irish identities, 1600–c. 1790
- Part III. Points of Contact:
- 8. Constructing the pre-romantic Celt
- 9. Mapping a Gothic Europe
- 10. The varieties of Gothicism in the British Atlantic world, 1689–c. 1790
- 11. Conclusion
- Index.
