The Anglo-British Case: The Archetype?

Abstract

The empirical investigation of nationalism from the perspective of the theory of multiple modernities starts with the Anglo-British case. Any investigation of nationalism and modernity needs to consider this because England is widely seen to constitute a context in which modernity emerged and also because it is acknowledged that English nationalism was one of the first to emerge in the world. In short, the English case is arguably an archetypical one in the study of both modernity and nationalism, and as such it is a suitable subject of investigation in this volume. However, discussing the English case is no straightforward task and the purpose of this chapter is to examine the Anglo-British case, a rather inelegant formulation. This is because, as we shall see later, English nationalism is entangled with British nationalism, or more precisely the idea of England with that of Britain, or being English with being British. This means that when examining English nationalism, Britain/British nationalism needs to be kept within sight. When discussing Britain/British nationalism, examination of the Scottish case becomes necessary because it is a significant contributing element to Britain/British nationalism. This complication simply reflects the ways in which England, Scotland, and Britain have evolved and developed throughout history.