The Politics of English Nationhood
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Oxford University Press
Published:13th Mar '14
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
This hardback is available in another edition too:
- Paperback£41.99(9780198778721)
Winner: W. J. M. Mackenzie Book Prize
The Politics of English Nationhood provides a comprehensive overview of the available evidence and major arguments relating to the revival of Englishness in the last two decades. It examines the challenges which the mainstream political parties have encountered in dealing with 'the English question'.The Politics of English Nationhood supplies the first comprehensive overview of the evidence, research and major arguments relating to the revival of Englishness, exploring its varied, and often overlooked, political ramifications and dimensions. It examines the difficulties which the major political parties have encountered in dealing with 'the English question' against the backdrop of the diminishing hold of established ideas of British government and national identity in the final years of the last century. And it explores a range of factors --including insecurities generated by economic change, Euroscepticism, and a growing sense of cultural anxiety - which helped make the renewal of Englishness appealing and imperative, prior to the introduction of devolution by the first Blair government, a policy which also gave this process a further impetus. The book therefore provides a powerful challenge to the two established orthodoxies in this area. These either maintain that the English are dispositionally unable to assert their own nationhood outside the framework of the British state, or point to the supposed resurgence of a resentful and reactive sense of English nationalism. This volume instead demonstrates that a renewed, resonant and internally divided sense of English nationhood is apparent across the lines of class, geography, age, and ethnicity. And it identifies several distinct strands of national identity that have emerged in this period, contrasting the appearance of populist and resentful forms of English nationalism with an embedded and deeply rooted sense of conservative Englishness and attempts to reconstruct a more liberal and civic idea of a multicultural England. This volume also includes a wide-ranging analysis of the culturally rooted revival of Englishness, drawing out the political dimensions and implications of this re-emerging form of national consciousness.
The Politics of English Nationhood is a good example of political writing that is sufficiently flexible to allow for historical contingency. One of the strengths of The Politics of English Nationhood is its judicious weighing of the evidence. One senses that the heavily qualified case that Kenny makes, almost inclines him to proceed at a rarefied level of discussion. Nations and Nationalism A good example of political writing that is sufficiently flexible to allow for historical contingency ... an important book in the context of an uncertain English national future, and one that will appeal both a specialist audience and undergraduates on a variety of degree courses. Sam Pryke, Source Unknown Kenny succeeds in bringing clarity to a notoriously muddled and woolly area. ... The book is not only fascinating for specialists in the field, but can also be recommended to anyone who is new to the debate, because it does not assume prior knowledge ... This is a wonderful book, containing much both to challenge and to cheer. It is a calming, balanced approach to the current debate, deflating the lazy false dichotomies that have been peddled by the broadsheets. It is, in fact, the book we have been missing, and it dramatically realigns the parameters of a debate that has for too long been governed by negative emotions, especially by metropolitan English self-dread. Isabel Taylor, Albion magazine Online A welcome and timely effort to think about what England after the Union might end up looking like. Mark Perryman, Philosophy Football To what extent has there been a rise in English nationalism in recent years? What is its character, and its possible causes? Michael Kenny's subtle and suggestive study is unusual in stressing the importance of political traditions and ideologies, to complement the usual cultural analyses, in explaining recent developments. He draws upon a mass of recent survey research and combines this skilfully with historical and cultural accounts to conduct a thoughtful and illuminating inquiry that will be a major contribution to current debates about the future of the United Kingdom. Krishan Kumar, University of Virginia The English have often been confused about who they really are. In this major new study Michael Kenny provides an eloquent and nuanced account of the idea of Englishness, drawing on a wide range of sources and perspectives. He gives a compelling and absorbing analysis of the complex meanings of Englishness and how they relate to politics. Andrew Gamble, University of Cambridge
- Winner of Winner of the 2015 W. J. M. Mackenzie Prize awarded by the Political Studies Association.
ISBN: 9780199608614
Dimensions: 242mm x 162mm x 28mm
Weight: 624g
306 pages