 | |
| Author | Dominic Selwood |
|---|---|
| Genre | History, British History |
| Published | 23 September 2021 Constable (Hachette) |
| Publication place | England |
| ISBN | 9781472131898 |
| 941 | |
Anatomy of a Nation. A History of British Identity in 50 Documents is a 2021 history book by the English historian and barrister Dominic Selwood.
It explores over 900,000 years of British identity by examining 50 documents that tell the story of what makes Britain unique: its evolution, achievements, complexities, and tensions.
The book presents Britain's identity as ever-changing. The first humans to find Britain were nomadic hunters, who were followed by more sedentary farmers. A Celtic identity emerged in the late Bronze Age, before giving way to Romano-British culture. Bands of Anglo-Saxons arrived on the withdrawal of Roman power, bringing Germanic culture, which was added to by Viking settlement and conquest, bringing parts of Britain into a wider Anglo-Scandinavian world. Then, in 1066, the Normans arrived, starting several centuries of connection between Britain and France. In later centuries, Africans, Roma, Indians and others arrived, before significant immigration in the mid-twentieth century from the British Empire and former British Empire. Finally, Britain's membership of the European Union brought freedom of movement for EU citizens until Britain left the EU in January 2020 after the 2016 Brexit referendum.
Selwood's thesis is that Britain has had many identities, each of which has been successful in different ways. The challenge for the country is to stop relying on imperial figures like Winston Churchill as the epitome of Britishness, and try to find a new identity for the twenty-first century. To do this, Selwood urges a critical examination of Britain's long history to understand the range of identities Britain has had, and the need to find inspiration in them for a new, modern identity.
BBC Radio called it "a fantastic book". [1] James Sewry in The Times Literary Supplement noted the book's "range and rich diversity of material" and commended the choice of 50 documents in which "the predictable is far outweighed by the surprising and off-beat … a readable and enjoyable narrative history". [2] The Times called it "An incredible insight into the private lives of people’. [3] The Law Society Gazette said "An absorbing read. One of the joys of Selwood's writing is his cogent analysis. The exhaustive bibliography of sources attests to the depth of Selwood's research. An innovative history eruditely told". [4] Soldier Magazine (the official magazine of the British Army) noted that it is "stimulating ... ambitious ... wide and varied ... clear and lively ... sections on Northern Ireland and the Falklands War are judicious, balanced and well-argued". [5]
The British Isles are a group of islands in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner and Outer Hebrides, the Northern Isles, and over six thousand smaller islands. They have a total area of 315,159 km2 (121,684 sq mi) and a combined population of almost 72 million, and include two sovereign states, the Republic of Ireland, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The Channel Islands, off the north coast of France, are normally taken to be part of the British Isles, even though geographically they do not form part of the archipelago. Under the UK Interpretation Act 1978, the Channel Islands are clarified as forming part of the British Islands, not to be confused with the British Isles.
Joseph Rudyard Kipling was an English journalist, novelist, poet, and short-story writer. He was born in British India, which inspired much of his work.
Kim is a novel by Nobel Prize-winning English author Rudyard Kipling. It was first published serially in McClure's Magazine from December 1900 to October 1901 as well as in Cassell's Magazine from January to November 1901, and first published in book form by Macmillan & Co. Ltd in October 1901. The novel is notable for its detailed portrait of the people, culture, and varied religions of India. "The book presents a vivid picture of India, its teeming populations, religions, and superstitions, and the life of the bazaars and the road." The story unfolds against the backdrop of the Great Game, the political conflict between Russia and Britain in Central Asia. The novel popularized the phrase and idea of the Great Game.
The Romano-British culture arose in Britain under the Roman Empire following the Roman conquest in AD 43 and the creation of the province of Britannia. It arose as a fusion of the imported Roman culture with that of the indigenous Britons, a people of Celtic language and custom.
The Anglosphere is the Anglo-American sphere of influence, with a core group of nations that today maintain close political, diplomatic and military co-operation. While the nations included in different sources vary, the Anglosphere is usually not considered to include all countries where English is an official language, so it is not synonymous with the sphere of anglophones, though commonly included nations are those that were formerly part of the British Empire and retained the English language and English Common Law.
Sir Niall Campbell FergusonFRSE is a Scottish–American historian who is the Milbank Family Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and a senior fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University. Previously, he was a professor at Harvard University, the London School of Economics, New York University, a visiting professor at the New College of the Humanities, and a senior research fellow at Jesus College, Oxford. He was a visiting lecturer at the London School of Economics for the 2023/24 academic year and at Tsinghua University, China in 2019–20. He is a co-founder of the University of Austin, Texas.
Anglo-Indian people are a distinct minority community of mixed-race Eurasian ancestry with British paternal and Indian maternal heritage, whose first language is ordinarily English. Prior to 1911, various designations like "Eurasian" or "Indo-Briton" were used to describe this community.
Sebastian Charles Faulks is a British novelist, journalist and broadcaster. He is best known for his historical novels set in France – The Girl at the Lion d'Or, Birdsong and Charlotte Gray.
Sub-Roman Britain is the period of late antiquity in Great Britain between the end of Roman rule and the Anglo-Saxon settlement. The term was originally used to describe archaeological remains found in 5th- and 6th-century AD sites that hinted at the decay of locally made wares from a previous higher standard under the Roman Empire. It is now used to describe the period that commenced with the recall of Roman troops to Gaul by Constantine III in 407 and to have concluded with the Battle of Deorham in 577.
The Cornish people or Cornish are an ethnic group native to, or associated with Cornwall and a recognised national minority in the United Kingdom, which can trace its roots to the Brittonic Celtic ancient Britons who inhabited Great Britain from somewhere between the 11th and 7th centuries BC and inhabited Britain at the time of the Roman conquest. Many in Cornwall today continue to assert a distinct identity separate from or in addition to English or British identities. Cornish identity has also been adopted by some migrants into Cornwall, as well as by emigrant and descendant communities from Cornwall, the latter sometimes referred to as the Cornish diaspora. Although not included as a tick-box option in the UK census, the numbers of those writing in a Cornish ethnic and national identity are officially recognised and recorded.
Susan Margaret Black, Baroness Black of Strome, is a Scottish forensic anthropologist, anatomist and academic. She was the Pro Vice-Chancellor for Engagement at Lancaster University and is past President of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. From 2003 to 2018 she was Professor of Anatomy and Forensic Anthropology at the University of Dundee. She is President of St John's College, Oxford.
The Dream Of Rome (2006) is a book by Boris Johnson, in which he discusses how the Roman Empire achieved political and cultural unity in Europe, and compares it to what he argues is the failure of the European Union to do the same. It was aired as a BBC television documentary prior to its release as a book in the same year.
Colin Craig Kidd is a historian who specializes in American and Scottish history. He is currently Professor of History at the University of St Andrews, after he served as Professor of Intellectual History and the History of Political Thought at Queen's University Belfast, where he has worked since he left the University of Glasgow in 2010.
Philip Nicholas Seton Mansergh was a historian. His focus was on Ireland and the British Commonwealth. He was Master of St John's College, Cambridge (1969-1979). He was chair of British Commonwealth relations at Chatham House (1945-1953). Then in 1953 the Smuts Professor of Commonwealth History at Cambridge University, where he trained many of the specialists in the field of Irish, Indian, and Commonwealth studies. He played the central role in assembling and editing the "monumental" 12-volume edition of historical documents associated with the independence of India.
The English people are an ethnic group and nation native to England, who speak the English language, a West Germanic language, and share a common ancestry, history, and culture. The English identity began with the Anglo-Saxons, when they were known as the Angelcynn, meaning race or tribe of the Angles. Their ethnonym is derived from the Angles, one of the Germanic peoples who invaded Britain around the 5th century AD.
British people or Britons, also known colloquially as Brits, are the citizens of the United Kingdom, the British Overseas Territories, and the Crown dependencies. British nationality law governs modern British citizenship and nationality, which can be acquired, for instance, by descent from British nationals. When used in a historical context, "British" or "Britons" can refer to the Ancient Britons, the Celtic-speaking inhabitants of Great Britain during the Iron Age, whose descendants formed the major part of the modern Welsh people, Cornish people, Bretons and considerable proportions of English people. It also refers to citizens of the former British Empire, who settled in the country prior to 1973, and hold neither UK citizenship nor nationality.
Malaysia–United Kingdom relations are bilateral foreign relations between Malaysia and the United Kingdom. Malaysia has a high commission in London, and the United Kingdom has a high commission in Kuala Lumpur. Both countries are full members of the Commonwealth of Nations.
The Scottish people or Scots are an ethnic group and nation native to Scotland. Historically, they emerged in the early Middle Ages from an amalgamation of two Celtic peoples, the Picts and Gaels, who founded the Kingdom of Scotland in the 9th century. In the following two centuries, Celtic-speaking Cumbrians of Strathclyde and Germanic-speaking Angles of Northumbria became part of Scotland. In the High Middle Ages, during the 12th-century Davidian Revolution, small numbers of Norman nobles migrated to the Lowlands. In the 13th century, the Norse-Gaels of the Western Isles became part of Scotland, followed by the Norse of the Northern Isles in the 15th century.
Dominic Selwood is an English historian, author, journalist and barrister. He has written several works of history, historical fiction and historical thrillers, most notably The Sword of Moses. and Anatomy of a Nation. A History of British Identity in 50 Documents. His background is in medieval history.
Francis Gregson was a British photographer and war correspondent, attached to the Anglo-Egyptian troops under the command of Herbert Kitchener during the reconquest of the Sudan. Gregson is believed to have been the author of an album of 232 photographs called "Khartoum 1898", taken during the Anglo-Egyptian military campaign in Sudan from 1896 – 98. These photographs in the archives of the National Army Museum, London, have been attributed to Gregson and constitute an important body of photographic records of this British military involvement in the Sudan. They have also been of importance in forming the public's views of 19th century British Imperial warfare.
