Englishness Identified

Manners and Character, 1650-1850

• Author(s): Paul Langford,
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Pages: 389
• ISBN_10: 0199246408
  ISBN_13: 9780199246403
  
• Language: en
• Categories: History / Europe / General , History / Europe / Great Britain / General , History / Modern / General , History / Social History , Literary Criticism / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh , Social Science / Anthropology / Cultural & Social , Social Science / Customs & Traditions , Social Science / Ethnic Studies / European Studies ,

Description:... In the seventeenth century the English were often depicted as a nation of barbarians, fanatics, and king-killers. Two hundred years later they were more likely to be seen as the triumphant possessors of a unique political stability, vigorous industrial revolution, and a world-wide empire. These may have been British achievements; but the virtues which brought about this transformation tended to be perceived as specifically English. Ideas of what constituted Englishness changed from a stock notion of waywardness and unpredictability to one of discipline and dedication. The evolution of the so-called national character - today once more the subject of scrutiny and debate - is traced through the impressions and analyses of foreign observers, and related to English ambitions and anxieties during a period of intense change.