Relocating Britishness

Ideas about what it is to be British have recently become subject to change and discussion. The end of Empire, the loss of world power status, the collapse of old industrial communities, the decline of Protestantism, and the rise of nationalism in Wales and Scotland, have all served to change the perception of what it is to be British. This book offers a range of original perspectives on how Britishness might be constructed at the turn of the millennium, and where it might be going. It pulls together the disciplines of history, art history, cultural studies, film and television studies, sociology and politics. Looking at Britishness from a variety of geographical perspectives, from the English regions to the United Kingdom as a whole, the contributors incorporate ideas from sport to sculpture, from Belfast to Blackpool, and from James Bond to Barbara Taylor Bradford.

In these 14 lively essays contributors examine what has happened to the concept and incidence of "Britishness" at a time when those born and bred to it are not quite sure themselves. They describe the impossibility of maintaining a monolithic culture when Britain is breaking up, the effects of New Labour, varieties in race, class and politics in such various venues as cricket, football and the films of Mike Leigh, changes in perceptions of masculinity in fiction and war art, changes in the fine art of subversions and in recent fiction about women's regional identity, Welsh national identity and the Orange Order as indicators of changes in Britishness, film representations of the Irish-English conflict since the 1994 ceasefire, and the development of regional British identity evidenced in northern television police series. Distributed by Palgrave. Annotation ©2005 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Stephen Caunce is Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Central Lancashire.

Ewa Mazierska is Lecturer in History at the University of Central Lancashire.

Susan Sydney-Smith is Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Central Lancashire.

John K. Walton is Professor of Social History at the University of Central Lancashire.